Fast times and good moves as thousands enjoy Cape Town’s running party

by Stephen Granger

The 2022 Absa RUN YOUR CITY 10km series was launched in Cape Town last Sunday with several world-class performances from the sports mega-stars against a kaleidoscope of sights and sounds as the city returned to party-mode. As the city-racing moves on to Durban and Johannesburg, the series appears to be on track to meet Stillwater Sports CEO Michael Meyer’s vision of it becoming the world’s most successful 10km road series.

A key ingredient in achieving global greatness in such a series is achieving an optimal balance between quality and quantity and to ensure that both ingredients are perfectly blended to achieve success.

That is never easy. Mostly elites seek perfect weather conditions – near-calm conditions and temperatures ranging between 13 and 17 degrees Celsius. Cape Town in May is generally stable and Sunday’s weather gods obliged to deliver near-perfect meteorology.

Although the jury is still out on Cape Town’s optimal route for speed (and the answer is likely to vary according to the strengths and weakness of individual athletes) importantly, from the perspective of the elites, the route should be fast and mostly, but not wholly, flat. “Tourist attractions” such as the city’s built heritage or exquisite natural landforms or sea-scapes are of low interest to athletes chasing big prize money and record incentives.

Not so for Joe Everyman, who might be looking for an opportunity to record a personal best time but will be looking for a memorable and rich race experience including fun and entertainment. Particularly if he or she is a visitor, the desirability of a route connecting many of the city’s tourist spots would rank high on the list of priorities.

This year’s course is arguably as good as it gets for fast times – Ugandan Stella Chesang, who raced to the fastest 10km ever on the continent was adamant that the current course is the best possible route for world-class times – but apart from the first (from Milnerton) and last two kilometres (along the  Heerengracht and down Long Street), some may argue it falls down on the ‘iconic tourist site’ category.

Perhaps in recognition of this, Stillwater Sports, who have grown the race and three-city series into world-class fare, provided an unparalleled party atmosphere along the 10 km with ‘next level’ music and dance entertainers on show. While the frontrunners likely paid scant attention, flying through the activations at significantly faster than three minutes per kilometre, many of the middle and back of the pack runners paused to take in the extraordinary sights and sounds on offer.

Another possible consideration for future Absa RUN YOUR CITY CAPE TOWN 10km races could be to redesign the route to qualify for world record times. One of the criteria for such recognition by World Athletics is that the start and finish points should be no further from each other than 10% of the race distance – in this case one kilometre – to avoid a possible situation where athletes might set a record aided by a strong tailwind for the entire race.

Performances recorded on the current course fall within the “World Best Times” list, as opposed to “World Record” category.  Might a creative use of Cape Town’s historic Duncan Docks precinct for the start and first half of the race, while retaining this year’s second half with athletes streaming over the N1 Freeway into the city centre, lead to world record performances?

Whatever changes might or might not be made for next year, Cape Town can be well-proud of the Absa RUN YOUR CITY 10km, which brought a buzz of excitement and energy into a typically quiet Sunday city centre, boosted the local and regional economy and delivered high quality and quantity athletics and publicity for the city.

Results

Men

1 Daniel Ebenyo (Ken) 27:34; 2 Isaac Kipkemboi (Ken) 28:04; 3 Namakoe Nkhasi (Les) 28:24; 4 Asbel Rutto (Ken) 28:25; 5 Anthony Timoteus (Ned WP) 28:29; 6 Stephen Mokoka (Boxer AC) 28:33; 7 Desmond Mokgobu (Entsika AC) 28:35; 8 Reghen Magwai (Hol Bets) 28:40; 9 Thabang Mosiako (Boxer AC) 28:43; 10 Melikhaya Frans (Boxer AC) 28:43

Juniors: 1 Ayanda Jali (Boxer) 31:53; 2 Uzukhanye Makhonxa (K-Way VOB) 32:48; 3 Josh Steytler (Maties) 33:14

Masters 40 years: 1 Lindikhaya Mthangayi (Ned WP) 31:35; 2 Tsungai Mwanengeni (RCS Gugs) 32:48; 3 Ricardo Blaauw (Ned WP) 33:13

Masters 50 years: 1 John September (Brimstone Itheko) 35:46; 2 Andrew Cooper (Ned WP) 37:28; 3 Colin George (K-Way VOB) 39:04

Masters 60 years: 1 Eric Coetzee (temp lic) 39:24; 2 Friedl vd Merwe (Ned WP) 40:13; 3 Henry Cieverts (Pine) 40:47

Masters 70 years: 1 Timothy Pienaar (K-Way VOB) 46:08; 2 Neville Frieslich (Fish Hoek) 47:43; 3 Horst Schiffer (Fish Hoek) 55:26

Women

1 Stella Chesang (Uganda) 30:40; 2 Jesca Chelengat (Ken) 30:48; 3 Genzebe Dibaba (Eth) 31:02; 4 Sarah Chelangat (Uganda) 31:35; 5 Mahlet Mulugeta (Eth) 31:47; 6 Mercyline Chelangat (Uganda) 31:52; 7 Neheng Khatala (Les) 32:06; 8 Diana Chesang (Ken) 32:48; 9 Taylor Kavanagh (M&R) 33:02; 10 Glenrose Xaba (Boxer AC) 33:12

Juniors: 1 Anika Visser (Bel) 39:52; 2 Tamica Jooste (UWC) 41:54; 3 Rebecca Monk (ATC) 42:08

Masters 40 years: 1 Christiane Adriaanse (Ned WP) 38:19; 2 Rolandi Schutte (Ned WP) 40:05; 3 Busisiwe Matiwane (Retail Langa) 43:00

Masters 50 years: 1 Zola Budd (Athletes Academy) 40:30; 2 Obertina Kanyongo (Ned WP) 41:24; 3 Marjorie Prins (Retail Capital Langa) 43:02

Masters 60 years: 1 Nancy Will (Pine) 48:12; 2 Dawn Saunders (Held) 48:21; 3 Olga Howard (Ned WP) 53:44

Masters 70 years: 1 Veronic van Niekerk (EGA) 54:38; 2 Marietha Herbert (Bell) 59:06; 3 Pixie Sparg (Cel) 1:04:12