Mokoka moves to make his marathon mark

Stephen Mokoka has spent his entire senior athletics career grooming himself to take a place among South Africa’s all-time marathon greats.

And after a long journey which has seen him progress across all distance running disciplines, the 32-year-old athlete has a chance to breathe new life into his career tomorrow when he takes his first real crack at the long-standing national 42km record.

Mokoka is by no means a marathon rookie. He has run eight races over the classic distance in the last seven years, setting a personal best of 2:07:40 in 2015 and winning the Shanghai Marathon three times.

But the marathon is a fickle beast to master and it requires the focus of a specialist to be competi- tive at the highest level.

Putting shorter distance races to the side for the first time this season, Mokoka will focus most of his attention towards the 42km event in his 2017 campaign, with his World Marathon Majors (WMM) debut at the Tokyo Marathon this weekend set to be followed by another major marathon near the end of the year.

Facing a first-rate 42km field for the first time in his career, which will be spearheaded by former world record-holder Wilson Kipsang of Kenya, Mokoka hopes to take advantage of the fast, newlook Tokyo course and give Gert Thys’ 17-year-old SA record of 2:06:33 a vigorous shake.

It could be an ideal opportunity, if conditions are favourable, for the diminutive warrior from Pretoria to make a statement against the global elite, but he will need to draw on all the strength, speed and endurance he has developed if he is to have any chance of challenging for a podium place.

Provided optimistic pre-race talk of a world record attempt is abandoned and the pace is reasonable, Mokoka could be in the mix up front, but he will need to keep his head down, stay out of trouble and make sure he’s keeping his eyes on the right people.

Mokoka has a cheeky habit of glancing sideways at his compet- itors during a race, as if he’s daring them to react with a gesture or respond with a turn of pace, a tactical tool he often uses to gain a mental advantage. And it usually works.

Against an impressive line-up of world-class marathon runners, however, tomorrow will not be the day to try and intimidate his opponents. When you bark at a big dog like Kipsang, he snaps back.

If any of his competitors try and turn the tables, Mokoka has also proved he is not discouraged or overawed by any other athlete’s past credentials, having consistently kept pace with some of the world’s best runners over shorter distances on the road in recent years.

Try and puff your chest in Mokoka’s direction to gain a psychological advantage over him, and the resultant 200m sprint you’ll face as punishment will thump you square in the lungs. And you won’t do it again.

Nonetheless, if Kipsang and some of the other pre-race favourites are near their best, Mokoka will have a tough time hanging on to the pace in the latter stages, and he’ll do well not to waste any energy playing mind games.

But he possesses all the attributes required to break Thys’ record, and if he can do that, he will take his place as the latest protagonist in a long and proud history of South African marathon running.

The shadows of his predecessors have already moved aside and cleared his path to the top of the all-time SA ranking list. All that’s left is for Mokoka to lunge himself across the line, as he seems ultimately destined to do.