Masiphumelele’s Malusi triumphs at Bay to Bay

Thirty-three year old Masiphumelele athlete, Malusi Judase, is the pride of the Satori Running Club following his superb win in Sunday’s (22 January) Bay to Bay 30km back to back race between Camps Bay and Hout Bay.

One of the oldest and competitive of local road races, the Bay to Bay, which this year saw almost 5000 starting in the 30km and 15km races, has been won by many of South Africa’s leading athletes. 

Former marathon record-holder Bernard Rose, multiple Two Oceans champion Monica Drogemoller, national 5000m record holder Elroy Gallant and more recently track Olympian Dominique Scott (15km) are some of the names gracing the event’s ‘honours board’.

Judase has raced consistently in Cape Town in recent years, with victories in the Constantia Village 15km and the Camel Rock 15km to his name last year, but Sunday’s win marks a significant step up, both in distance and quality, with his 1 hr 36 min 08 sec victory one of the fastest in the race’s history.

While race-organising gremlins led to the total distance of Sunday’s race being some 400m short, there was no denying the quality of Judase’s victory, with athletes of the calibre of runner-up Sithembiso Mqele, third-placed Raydon Balie and leading trail marathoner, Kane Reilly (5^th) trailing in his wake.

Murray and Roberts’ Mqhele won last year’s Cape Peninsula Marathon, while defending Bay to Bay champion, Nedbank’s Balie, has been a top-performer on the road in recent years.

“I’ve been training for this race since September last year, doing many training runs of around 30 – 35km,” said Judase after the race. “I’ve clocked 1 hr 41min in training for 30km so I’m very happy with my winning time today of 1:36.  And it’s good to beat top athletes such as Raydon and Sithembiso.”

Judase was part of a group of six, including Mqele, Balie, Reilly, Langa’s William Kaptein, Nedbank’s Sibusiso Madikizela and Judase’s Satori teammate, Asisipho Matomane, who were together for the first 8km towards Llandudno, but a headlong dash on the steep descent down Suikerbossie by Kaptein left just four together at the turn at half-way – Kaptein, Balie, Judase and Mqhele.

Judase and Balie joined forces on the return climb up Suikerbossie, with the pair opening a gap on their rivals. “Me and Malusi stuck together on the climb,” explained Balie. “It’s really a tough climb, hard to go on your own, so we stuck together till the top then continued on the descent back to Camps Bay.”

A cramp in his right achilles slowed Balie and he fell behind 4km from the finish, leaving Judase clear to race to his first career victory for a distance longer than the half marathon.

“I live in ‘Masi P’ and train in the Noordhoek area where our club (Satori) headquarters is based,” explained Judase, who has recently joined up with retired ASA Coach, coach George Gundry. “On Sundays we often run from Imhoff’s Gift out towards Cape Point and back which includes some nice hills. We do our speed training on the grass at the Fish Hoek club.

“My goal is to run a good marathon, perhaps at Cape Town Marathon later in the year, but before that I’m going to race at the Nedbank 50km in Gqeberha at the end of next month.”

Judase balances his running with his work at Budding Inspirations, a Sun Valley-based landscape garden company. “I’ve been with the company around ten years now and I enjoy combining my work with my running.”

But it does mean an early start each day for Judase, who lives with his soccer-mad younger brother.  He rises at 04h30 to fit in a training session before work, doing what he loves, steadily improving towards his ultimate goals.

“We’re exceptionally proud of him,” said Satori club chairperson, Stephen Sharwood. “We support a strong team of athletes from Masiphumelele and they’ve won several team prizes in local races. They are the club’s sponsored runners and we invest most of the profits made from our road races into their racing.

“We provide them with running kit and shoes, licenses, races entries and transport – everything needed to succeed.  But to date we haven’t sponsored their nutrition – that’s a big thing for athletes and I hope we might be able to contribute towards their nutritional well-being in the future.

“Malusi’s done really well in distances up to the half marathon and holds the Fish Hoek Park Run record. He raced for WP in the recent ASA Championships, although did not have a great race there. Now he is increasing his racing distance and it’s great he has succeeded.  And Asisipho Matomane has also done well – he finished 4^th on Sunday.”

Former Matie, 23-year-old Mia Steytler, won the women’s race in a fine performance, clocking an impressive 2:01:38 to finish four minutes clear of Durbanville’s Leani Potgieter.

Taking advantage of a rare short vacation from her gruelling final internship year as a doctor at Worcester Hospital, Steytler, who is coached by leading Stellenbosch coach, Ernie Gruhn and who placed second by just 11 seconds to Zintle Xiniwe in November’s Winelands Half Marathon, ran with apparent ease and was never challenged for the title.

“This is my longest ever race,” Steytler admitted. “I love the longer races, but struggle to find the time to follow a formal training programme at the moment.”

Former South African great, Elana van Zyl, has noted Steytler’s ability. “I know Mia very well. She has been training with Jacques (Van Rensburg – her husband) & Ernie (Gruhn). She’s really talented – but it’s hard to combine her work in the medical profession with a full running career.”