Making waves at the prestigious Two Oceans must be top of agenda

No sport is ever successful without passion, without meticulous planning, without flair and without the will to succeed.

Roadrunning and, indeed, running in all its forms is the epitome of all those attributes and on Saturday thousands of runners will be at the start of the 50th Old Mutual Two Oceans 56km marathon and its younger cousin the 21,1km half-marathon hoping to emulate athletic deliverances of years past.

This province has supplied many superb runners whose names are etched in the rich history of the race.

At the helm of all the thousands of Eastern Cape-based runners that have run Two Oceans, is undoubtedly the late Thompson Magawana. No rocket science here, for the man from Bizana who broke the course record, indeed smashed it in 1987 and again in 1988, when he too extended it out of the reach of all who followed. His time an astonishing 3:03:44.

The great half-marathon and marathoner, Zithulele Sinqe, from Mthatha, turned his attentions to Two Oceans in the hope of beating Magawana's record, but despite superb winning performances in 1996 and 1997 and a best time of 3:07:17, the Olympian marathoner could not do so.

Michael Scout from Uitenhage won gold for his fourth place in 1997, while Libode's Mluleki Nobanda won the race in 2003 and finished second a year later.

Prior to these incredible performances, King William’s Town's Gordon Shaw came fifth in 1977, John Donald was fifth in 1984 and fourth the following year, while brother Stephen notched a ninth place in 1985 and Rodwell Sims 10th a year earlier.

Another Mthatha man, Alfred Mangesi, won two gold medals for successive ninth positions in 1987 and ‘88.

Beverley Malan from Port Elizabeth was the leading woman in the province for a number years and she won the race in 1982, ‘83 and ‘85 with a best time of 3:55:51, comfortably under the heralded four hours.

Jean Rayner finished third in 1989 with a time eight minutes over the four barrier, while more recently Smith ended ninth in 4:04. Eleven years after the dominance of Malan, Lizanne Holmes emerged from East London to finish third in 3:48:26, such had the standard of the women's race evolved. The previous year Holmes had finished sixth. She also recorded two eighth positions in 2000 and 2001 to make her the fastest local women by the proverbial mile.

In later years Hanlie Botha has done well at the half-marathon having won three gold medals and will this year be competing in the veteran category and looking to better her 80:42 of last year and perhaps even her 2008 best of 79:39.

The class of 2019 should look back at the pedigree of runner this province has produced and make the decision to emulate their work ethic and desire to succeed.

The weather looks set to be an ally on the Peninsula this year, so all it takes is the said planning, the flair to produce and deliver a set goal, the confidence to believe and to see the race through to the final step.

Come Saturday afternoon the results will speak.