Elroy Gelant continued his extraordinary run of distance-running success on the weekend (Saturday 1 June), with a clear-cut victory in tough conditions at the Nelson Mandela Half Marathon at the Eastern Cape city of Gqeberha, while world-class Ethiopian, Tadu Teshome Nare, took line honours in the women’s race.
The race incorporated the 2024 Athletics South Africa Half Marathon Championships.
Lashings of rain mixed with strong winds ended any thoughts of competitive half marathon times, but in the end, class shone through, with pre-race favourites Gelant and Nare clinching victory and the respective R100 000 first prizes.
Gauteng North’s Glenrose Xaba clinched the gold medal in the ASA Championships, finishing fourth overall behind Nare, Ethiopian junior, Diniya Abaraya, and Lesotho’s Blandine Makatisi and ahead of Central Gauteng’s Cacisile Sosibo in 5th, who claimed the silver.
With two Lesotho athletes in the overall top five (Namakoe Nkhasi, 2nd, and Kamohelo Mofolo, 4th) the men’s championship medals went to Gelant, Precious Mashele (3rd) and Thabang Mosiako (5th).
For Gelant, who won the inaugural Nelson Mandela Half Marathon a decade back in equally testing conditions, his purple patch of pacy performances in recent weeks continued, underlining his readiness for the Paris Olympics should he be allocated a well-merited belated qualifying place for the Olympic Marathon.
Two close second places to emergent Kenyan star, Vincent Langat, in the Gqeberha and Cape Town RunYourCity 10km races (including his lifetime best of 27:54), a silver medal to world-class Adrian Wildschutt in the 5000m at the ASA Track and Field Championships, victory in the ASA Marathon Championship in Durban and his national half marathon title this weekend have all been achieved in less than two months.
After early jockeying for positions through the adverse conditions, the lead pack began to stretch out towards the halfway mark. Shortly after Gelant, together with two Eastern Cape athletes, Thabang Mosiako and Nicholas Seoposengwe, broke clear of the chasing pack. Another surge from Gelant dropped Seoposengwe before Mosiako also yielded to Gelant’s powerful running.
Running into a strong headwind in the final stages, Mosiako was caught by the chasers, but Gelant held on to secure a 9 second victory over Namakoe with Mashele outsprinting Mofolo on the line for third.
“It wasn’t easy,” said Gelant. “But I’m happy with my race. I told myself before the start I just wanted a solid and confident race and that is what I achieved today. I’m proud of myself and my team, including my coach Jean Verster, my club and training mates back home and my girlfriend Tamsyn.
“Somehow with this being an Olympic year, my body just switched on and I knew I needed to up my game. I’m still hopeful I will make it to Paris!”
“I knew I had to take it out from the start especially with the wind. The first 2km I went out hard with the wind behind me. But I knew it was going to be a chess game – a tactical race – and tried to work with Thabang in the early stages. It was difficult but I told myself that my training had gone well, and I just had to trust my preparation.
“Ten years back we had similar conditions, so I just told myself ‘you don’t need to be scared – you’ve run in those conditions before and won’,” said Gelant.
The Southern African pair, Xaba and Makatini kept pace with their northern rivals, Ethiopians, Nare and Abaraya through 10km, reached in 35:18, but were unable to stay the pace as Nare upped the pace in the second half, drawing away first with Abaraya before going solo for the final stages to clinch a 30 second victory in 1:12:01.
Nare cut her teeth on the South African SPAR 10km Challenge circuit before racing to a 2 hr 17 min marathon at Valencia and placing 5th at the Chicago Marathon last October. She missed out on the 2023 circuit but returned to South Africa to race in Gqeberha this weekend, where she had placed third to compatriot Ftaw Zeray in 2022, her time then of 1:07:55 was almost five minutes faster that her winning effort this weekend.
“The conditions out there were terrible – the wind was so tough running against it,” Nare smiled. “At one stage I almost got blown into the lead bicycle. But I’m happy to have won today.”
“I’m happy with my position and defending my title,” said Xaba. “Although I came fourth overall – they just caught me with 100m to go. I’m glad I could finish – conditions were so very tough today.”
Reflecting on the ten years of the event, Race founder and director, Mike Mbambani, says as the richest 21km race in the country, the Nelson Mandela Bay Half Marathon has put Eastern Province Athletics (EPA) on the map as the hosts of one of the country’s best road running events.
“This event is pure development, we are bringing competition to our doorstep and giving our athletes the opportunity to perform with top competitors. “We’ve managed to build our flagship event with a strong LOC, to attract the crème de la crème of athletes.
“This started a few years ago when a few athletes came down to Gqeberha – they were running around 67 to 68 minutes for half marathon. Two years later they started to improve significantly and within another year or two Thabang Mosiako had broken the 60 minute barrier for the half marathon.
“Our winner’s prize money has grown from R35 000 in 2014 to R100 000 ten years later, and with this incentive we have attracted a highly competitive male and female field to tackle our flat and fast course,” added Mbambani.
