Mundell walking on sunshine to London

SOUTH Africa’s Marc Mundell is walking on sunshine after qualifying for the London Olympics later this year.

He strode to 26th spot in the men’s 50km event at the IAAF World Race Walking Cup in Saransk, Russia, last Sunday.

Mundell, 28, is the son of former SA 50km champion Oliver Mundell.

His finishing time of 3:57:57sec was 1:03 inside the Olympic A standard mark, a personal best time and a national and African record. Race winner was Sergey Kirdyapkin, the Russian setting a world-leading 3:38:08.

The former Hillcrest High school pupil, speaking from Russia, said: “The realisation of a childhood dream is without description. I think I’ll only believe fully when I am standing on the start line in London on August 11.

“I had a pretty awesome race today. The conditions were so lousy – super hot throughout. But I had to utilise this chance, no mat- ter the conditions,” he said.

Mundell had shown great form to record 10km road and track bests earlier in the season.

Speaking of his race he said: “I started off ahead of pace and kept going, recording 10km splits of 47:15; 94:05; 2:20:43; 3:08:54. I went through half-way (1:57:30) on course for a 3:55:00 and also recorded a PB through 30 of 2:20:43.” Muscle cramps set in with 17km to go. “At 38km, I had exactly 1hr 5sec in which to do the last 12km (5min/km ave). But I recorded consistent laps for the last 10km.

“I had to dig deep for the final kilometres, trusting in my support team, training and my mental willingness... This was my only chance!”

Mundell had previously walked a B standard on debut in 2009 in Zittau, Germany, (4:04:42) which, although a new national record, wasn’t considered good enough to qualify for the 2009 World Champs in Berlin.