SA pair on a victory mission

Wesley Bo on

– Stephen Mokoka has fired a warning at the world-class field he will face tomorrow, insisting he is ready to chase his own national 10km record at the inaugural FNB CitySurfRun road race.

Mokoka, who clocked 27:38 in Manchester two years ago, was set to line up against the likes of Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei, the World Championships 10 000m silver medallist, and Kenyan Morris Gachaga, who broke the 12km world record in Cape Town in May.

“The first goal for me is to run a personal best, which will be a national record,” Mokoka said yesterday.

“I feel I owe it to South Africans to give them a sub-28 on the road. I’ve done it here on the track, but SA has never witnessed a 27-minute 10km on the road.”

Meanwhile, US-based athlete Dom Scott-Efurd was preparing to put up a lone fight in a rare appearance on home soil.

While the majority of the country’s elite women were competing at the final leg of the lucrative Spar Ladies’ Grand Prix series in Joburg tomorrow Scott-Efurd was expected to fly the SA flag at the coastal race.

After setting a personal best of 32:22 on the road earlier this year, Scott-Efurd was being tipped to dip under 32 minutes and possibly give Elana Meyer’s SA record of 31:13 a real shake.

Her strongest challenges were expected to come from former World Half-Marathon Championships bronze medallist Paskalia Chepkorir of Kenya and Ugandan teenager Mercyline Chelangat.

“Every race I’ve lined up to run has gotten better and better, and I’ve run a lot of personal bests this year from 1 500m on the track to 10km on the road,” Scott-Efurd said.

“So I'm excited to see what I can finish my season with, and if I can continue the trend of running my best times, that would be great.”

Durban