East London has two 10km races to enthuse runners
The Khulani AC 10km road race which took place last weekend was dubbed by Isobel Louw, who has for years headed up race referees and officials in the Border region, as “an extremely wellorganised race, a perfect venue and a hilly Mdantsane route.”
Khulani is a relatively new club and this will be most encouraging and positive for the sport going forward.
This coming Sunday is another 10km albeit a contrasting one, when the Buffalo City Municipal AC who registered as a club in 2016 presents their faster 10km on the East London beachfront. It does encompass some hill running, but these are compensated by equivalent downhills.
The course starts on Esplanade Street above the BCM Tourism offices at 6.30am and heads off to Eastern Beach, up John Baillie, down Galway Road with a loop in Woodleigh, before heading back to the beachfront
Louw was not joking about the hills in the Mdantsane race, but then no runner expects anything else when running in the sprawling township, home of many a fine athlete.
The race times tell the story for when someone like Yanga Malusi of Boxer wins in 32:55 (he normally clocks between 29 and 31 minutes) then it is obvious. Admittedly he had no meaningful opposition with his clubmates the 23-year-old Lithobe Menzeleleli 1:28 adrift and then top veteran, the 44-year-old Xolisile Sinkintana, just 47 seconds behind him.
The race records for this week’s race were supplied to the Daily Dispatch by BCM AC committee member Sipho Breakfast and it is the same Malusi who holds the record for their 10km race, having clocked 31:17 in 2019 which is a huge 1:38 faster than the win in Mdantsane.
The women’s record is held by Easy Equities Born2run’s Tara Schwulst who clocked 39:56 in 2019. She has not run races of late, but her elder sister Cindy has entered and says, “I am a bit fitter
than at my last 10km race and I will definitely give the record a good go.”
The women’s winner in Mdantsane last week was Sandy Kundulu who finished in 46:03, followed by her Boxer teammate Zandile Rubushe in 47:08 and the first junior Bukho Breakfast of Born2run in 49:57. It would take a huge turnaround based on those results for any of them to break the race record.
October is all but done and enthusiasts of the sport are crying out for performances to sit up and take meaningful notice of.
The Mdantsane race gave much food for thought and was a triumph for the stronger athletes, so will this Sunday produce performance for the speed kings and queens?
One promising aspect of the Mdantsane race was the results of the junior men where Real Gijimas Academy athletes showed their mettle.
Entle James and Lilitha Xenexe were first and second in 37:44 and 39:16 respectively, while Robert Ntshintshi from Scenery Park AC was third in 40:08.