Mashele wins and set sight on Tokyo qualification

PRECIOUS Mashele's stock keeps on rising and following his impressive victory at the South

African Half Marathon Championships in Gqeberha yesterday, the Boxer AC athlete has every good reason to look to the future with confidence.

And that future - the immediate part of it - has all to do with the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.

Said his coach, the revered Hendrick Ramaala, following yesterday's win.

"It was a brilliant win by Precious today. Now, our next focus is for him to try and qualify for the Olympics. The goal is to get into the 5 000 and 10 000m. We will hopefully get some local races via the provincial events. If not, we will try overseas also," explained to road running legend who won the New York Marathon and competed gallantly with the worlds best at the Olympics and World Championships during his heyday.

At only 30-years-old, Mashele has time to develop into a superstar on the road and should easily shine on the international stage like the man he dethroned as national champion yesterday.

Mashele outran Mokoka to win a pretty tactical race by 61:17 to Mokoka's 61:25.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Half Marathon that doubled up as the national championship got off to a slow start which wasn’t what was expected.

A bunch of about 20 runners completed the initial 10km in a pedestrian pace of 29:50. which killed hopes of a sub 60 minutes race.

It took the senior citizen Mokoka, the defending champion from 2019 and national record holder, shifting into upper gear at the 15km mark for the race to get exciting. Mashele, Mbuleli Mathanga and Kenyan Felix Kebitok went with him and try as he might, Mokoka could not shake them off.

Late in the race with about two kilometres to go, it appeared as though Mokoka would retain his title when he managed to open a 20m gap between himself and Mashele as well as Kwazulu-natal's rising star Mathanga.

However, fresh from being crowned the country's 5 000m champion at the SA Track and Field Championships in Pretoria last month and also having beaten Mokoka in a similar distance in the Western Cape, Mashele overtook Mokoka with just 500m to go and held on to it until he broke the tape for his maiden national road title.

The victory saw him add a healthy R112 500 to his bank account, a windfall he was very appreciative of. "I am extremely grateful to my coach Hendrik Ramaala who helped us survive during the (Covid-19) pandemic in buying us food and for the work he put into preparing us for the race," a beaming Mashele said after the race "I am excited for the win because this is my first national half marathon win."

The ladies' race was again won by a foreigner - with favourite Brilliant Kipkoech of Kenya taking the honours in 67:32 following a commanding run which saw her go into an early lead and holding on to it. Ethiopia's Alemaddis Eyayu Sisay fought gallantly to keep up with Kipkoech but was broken with four kilometres to go and had to be contend with the runner-up berth in her Personal Best time of 68:04 ahead of her compatriot Tadu Nare in third spot.

The national battle saw Glenrose Xaba retain her title with a fifth spot placing via a time of 69:30, just four seconds slower than her PB, ahead of ninth placed Gerda Steyn and Irvette Van Zyl who finished 10th overall.