Pure joy to ‘stay with Elroy’ at the Cape Town Marathon

HE WON’T be on the podium, but Elroy Gelant, who hails from Pacaltsdorp, near George, is likely to be a major factor in the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon tomorrow.

One of South Africa’s most talented distance athletes, Gelant’s defining moment came in May this year, when he smashed Stephen Mokoka’s national 5 000m record by seven seconds in an international meeting in Hengelo, Holland, clocking a world-class 13min 04.88sec.

But his hopes of an Olympic medal were dashed in Rio.

Although he made the final, a hip injury hurt his chances of finishing on the podium, leaving the tall, Gauteng-based athlete to reflect on potentially running the marathon in Tokyo in 2020.

Tomorrow could be the start of Gelant’s path to Olympic glory, when he goes to the start of a standard marathon for the first time, not with the goal of running 42km, but as a designated pacer, designed to take the field through the half marathon and 30km-mark in record time.

“I’m excited about playing this role in my first taste of a marathon,” Gelant said yesterday.

“I was disappointed to miss out on a medal in Rio, and will need to make a choice as to where my best chance will lie in the Tokyo Games,” he said.

“Although I ran a 30km race in 2011 (Gelant won the Bay to Bay 30km in Cape Town in 1hr 36min), I have not run the distance in five years and it will be interesting to see how it goes.

“I’ll be discussing with the organisers and the top runners how they want me to run, but I’m aiming for 64:20 at the halfway mark and 1hr 31min at 30km – at about 3min 3sec per kilometre,” he added.

Given that the weather is predicted to be perfect for marathon running, anyone with Gelant at 30km and who continues at that pace for another 12km will run the fastest marathon in sub-Sahara Africa and improve David Tsebe’s South African marathon record of 2hr 09min 50sec.

And with additional incentives and bonuses on offer beyond the R265 000 first prize, a South African winner stands to improve his or her bank balance by close to R500 000.

Hence “stay with Elroy” is likely to be the mantra for many of the would-be podium finishers.

A number of athletes are likely to be with Gelant (and the second pacer, Henry Kiplagat) at the halfway mark, including defending cham- pion Kenyan Shadrack Kemboi, Ethiopians Teferi Fekadu Girma, Kaleb Basore and Sintayehu Legese Yinesu, Sergii Lebid of Ukraine, Ugandan Alex Chesakit and South Africa’s Lungile Gongqa, Benedict Moeng and Xolisa Tyali.

But who’ll still be there at 30km and at the business end of the marathon depends on who’ll be “in the right frame of mind”.

Kemboi said a 2:08 marathon is possible, although he wouldn’t commit to aiming for that time himself.

Moeng wants to be the best runner in Africa and will use the race as a stepping stone to get there. At least 10 athletes are in with a realistic chance of topping the podium.

In the women’s race, the Gauteng pair of debutant Lebogang Phalula, Keneilwe Sesing and Cape Town’s Tanith Maxwell and Zintle Xiniwe will be up against a talented trio of East Africans in the form of Kenya’s Jane Kiptoo, winner of this year’s Geneva Marathon, and Ethiopians Megertu Geletu and Biruk Tilahun in their quest for a sub-2hr 30min time.

The marathon gets under way from Beach Road near Granger Bay at 7am, with the Peace 10km road race, which features Olympians Sibusiso Nzima and Lebo Phalulu, following at 7.45am.