Mandela Day runner collapses and dies
A RUNNER collapsed within metres of the finish line of the 21km half-marathon at the Mandela Day road races outside Howick yesterday, and was later declared dead at a nearby hospital.
On falling, the runner was immediately treated by a doctor and a paramedic.
The event, which was first run in 2012 and which ends at the iconic Nelson Mandela Capture Site, consists of a 42-kilometre standard marathon, the 21km race, and a10km one.
More than 20 000 people participated in the various races from different starting points, ending at the Nelson Mandela Capture Site near Howick in the Midlands.
KZN Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs spokesperson Lennox Mabaso said it was the first time the Mandela Day races had experienced such a tragic loss of life.
“The organisers are in touch with the family of the deceased. They have expressed their heartfelt condolences to the family. The loss of one athlete is mourned by everyone across the running community,” he said.
The runner’s name has not yet been released.
SOMEONE clearly forgot to tell the Ethiopians just how tough the Mandela Day Marathon is.
Why else would the east Africans have smashed both the men’s and women’s course records on a pretty hot morning yesterday?
But then again, the east Africans have been threatening the records for some time now, that one – in this case two – of them were eventually going to rewrite it.
Just last year, Ethiopia’s Sinyatehu Legese came just 53 seconds short of deposing South Africa’s Thobani Chagwe as the record holder of the difficult 42.2km trek up from Mananye Hall in Imbali just outside Pietermaritzburg to the Capture Site on the outskirts of Howick when he won the race in 2hr 28min 05sec.
In the women’s race last year Kenyan Loice Jebet got in at 2:50:01, some time off Irvette Van Zyl’s mark of 2:47:15 set back in 2014 on the same day Chagwe ran his record.
In 2017 another Ethiopian Tekletsion Kassahun Tefera had come close to usurping Chagwe when he won the men’s race in 2:28:31.
Yesterday though, that charmed life the records lived came to a screeching halt as Muhajr Haredin Sraj and his Ethiopian compatriot Shemsu Chegen beat all comers to register new records for the eight-year-old race run in honour of and named after the world revered, former South African president.
With the organisers not making too much noise about the competitors ahead of the race, it was not immediately clear what kind of a race awaited.
But the fact that there was a good 63 international runners suggested the competition would nevertheless be stiff and that the likes of Chagwe and Teboho Noosi would have to be at their best if the men’s title was to return home. Noosi went for it and was in the lead by the halfway mark with Sraj breathing down his neck. Most of the supporting crew at the turn into Hillary Street in Hilton could tell that the Ethiopian was looking the stronger of the two and would rein the Maxed Elite runner in and go on to win in a new record of 2:26:18.
The duo were closely followed by Wondwosen Ketema Mamu, but the trio had opened a massive gap between themselves and the big group following behind. The Ethiopians made it a one-two finish, with Noosi completing the podium for a marked improvement on his sixth place last year.
In the women’s section, Chegen was cruising at the halfway point and looked to be unstoppable as she sauntered home to a new record of 2:45:41.
Just like in the men’s section, it was an Ethiopian one-two finish – Alebachew getting silver in 2:54:25 – while South African Sanelisiwe Mbanjwa took the bronze in a distant third-place finish that saw her clock 3:03:36.