Nelson Mandela Bay ASA Half-Marathon Championships winner Stephen Mokoka was thrilled to overcome some tough competition and defend his title at Pollok Beach on Saturday.
Athletics Gauteng North’s Mokoka, who also won the race last year, sprinted to the finish line, coming in at 1hr, 1min 44sec, ahead of international Benard Bil, who was just two seconds behind and another foreigner, Linus Ruto, who finished a further two seconds off the pace in 1:01:48.
Elroy Gelant (1:01:48) of Athletics Central North West and Gladwin Mzazi (1:01:49) of Central Gauteng Athletics were fourth and fifth respectively, securing silver and bronze in the national championship contest.
“It was a tight race – I was not expecting the guys to be that strong in the latter stages of the race,” Mokoka said.
“I am very happy with the victory and it is under 63 minutes. I am pleased with that but I was planning to run under 61 minutes.
Mokoka won R80,000 for coming first and a further R25,000 bonus for doing so as a South African runner.
“The prize money is good but I hope they get more sponsors so they can increase the money,” he said.
“A half-marathon is long and we have to shy away from competing [in other shorter events] for 10 or 12 weeks.
“So it takes almost three months out of our lives to prepare for the race.”
Foreign athletes dominated the women's race with Mamorallo Tjoka, of Lesotho, taking the win in 1:10:46, more than a minute ahead of her nearest opponent.With the victory, Tjoka also became the new Southern Region champion. “I am happy with the result. I ran very well today. However, it was a tough day out there because there were three strong women.
“One from Namibia, the other from Kenya and the third one was from Ethiopia and they were very fast and gave me a hard time,” she said.
“This is my second SA half-marathon. Last year, I could not come because of a hamstring injury.
“My plan was to win this year.”
Being the first South African home, sixth-placed Janet Mbhele earned her maiden 21.1km crown.
Mbhele, turning out for KwaZulu-Natal Athletics, ran a time of 1:13:07 to win gold in the national title race.
Lebogang Phalula (1:15:31) and Christine Kalmer (1:15:34) grabbed ninth and 10th positions for silver and bronze.
Top five
Men
1 Stephen Mokoka (AGN) 1:01:44, 2 Benard Bil (Nedbank International) 1:01:46, 3 Linus Ruto 1:01:48 (Nedbank International), 4 Elroy Gelant 1:01:48 (ACNW), 5 Gladwin Mzazi 1:01:49 (AGN)
Women
1 Mamorallo Tjoka (Lesotho) 1:10:46, 2 Helalia Johannes (Namibia) 1:10:51, 3 Susy Chemaimak 1:12:32 (Nedbank International), 4 Neheng Khatala 1:12:42 (Nedbank International), 5 Genet Abdurkadi Habela (Nedbank International) 1:12:57