NY result augurs well for April
LUSAPHO April, born in Uitenhage but often seen running the streets of Beacon Bay in East London, travelled to New York last week for a warmup race, the New York City Half Marathon as he prepares to tackle the Boston Marathon in a little over a month’s time.
He will no doubt be mightily pleased with the outcome, finishing fourth. He was always in the lead pack and ran a mere five seconds off his personal best, which he clocked in Copenhagen last year March.
The Jumbo-sponsored athlete’s time was 61:21 – a mere 15 seconds off the winner, US-based Kenyan Leonard Korir, who was in turn a mere one second off the tough Stephen Sambu, also from Kenya.
Mexican runner Juan Luis Barrios finished third in 61:14.
The race came down to a fourman affair with all four of the men going through 5km in 14:33, 10km in 29:14, 15km in 43:32 and 20km in 58:05. The two Kenyans, as is often the case, had too much gas for a sprint to the finish.
Said April in response to the result: “Those speedy guys just out-dragged me in the last kilometre of the race, but I am where I need to be before the big one in Boston.”
April’s coach Karen Zimmerman expressed her satisfaction with the outcome, saying that the plan was always to race hard and push the pace. “Lusapho has not got the natural speed of the Kenyans so he needs to run smartly to beat them.” She added she is confident that April will carry his form through to Boston and that she believes a big win is just around the corner.
A good performance would have been crucial to April, who locally turns out for Oxford Striders but when running internationally is part of the Adidas elite team.
It is one thing to perform and win at home, but quite different to take on the best at international level. It will have given him a great deal of confidence for the Boston on Monday April 20.
Last year he finished 15th at Boston in a time of 2:14:59. He will perhaps look at adapting his race tactics now he knows exactly what to expect in the oldest international marathon.
New York has been good to April – having finished third in the 2013 NY City Marathon, he will now be hoping that Boston will follow suit.