After over-racing in previous years Martin Ndivheni is going for quality instead of quantity and hoping to achieve his Olympic
Athletics: Julian Drew
AN all-too-familiar story in South African athletics is the waste of talent brought about by over-racing in the pursuit of meagre earnings on the local road running circuit. The truth is that a little more foresight could produce far greater dividends for far less effort.
This situation is unfortunately due to the boycott era when our distance runners were used to competing for a pittance and never knew of the treasure trove that was the international circuit in comparison. That it still happens today, however, is a rather sad reflection on the state of the sport in general. There are simply too few people around who actually understand the big picture and are involved in helping and advising our enormous pool of talent.
One athlete who exemplifies this state of affairs more than most is Martin Ndivheni who in 1993 ran six marathons and had upped that to an incredible 10, including the 56km Two Oceans Marathon, by 1994. While he was undefeated over the marathon in 1993 with the exception of the national championships where he was 33rd, he never went faster than 2:21:47 and his suicidal schedule saw him fail to win a single marathon in 1994.
That he had talent there was no doubt. In 1994 he came second at the national championships in a personal best of 2:15:19. The following week he went under the old course record when finishing runner-up in the extremely tough Land of Legends Marathon on home territory in Venda with a time of 2:22:55. He finally came to his senses after last year’s Soweto Marathon where he finished ninth and Ray de Vries, manager of Willie Mtolo, had a word with him.
“He told me that I was very good but that I was racing too much. He told me to cut down on my racing and prepare properly for one race and I would run a good time,” says Ndivheni. He decided to make a serious attempt on the South African Marathon Championships in Port Elizabeth in March and was rewarded with victory in a new personal best of 2:12:33 that saw him book his ticket to the world championships in Gothenburg in August.
Now he is a member of the Olympic marathon squad and although he is perhaps the least known among the four remaining members (Johannes Mabitle was removed from the team for racing overseas without clearance from Athletics South Africa), nobody should take his challenge for a place in the three-man team lightly. Lawrence Peu, Xolile Yawa and Willie Mtolo certainly have greater successes behind them but Ndivheni is learning fast and improving by the day. He is also dedicated to the cause.
“I was very angry when our marathon runners just made excuses at the Barcelona Olympics (only one out of three highly touted athletes finished the race). If they weren’t prepared to fight for their country they should have given somebody else a chance,” says Ndivheni. He is now thinking only of Atlanta and has started doing his main speed sessions at midday in Venda’s sweltering sub-tropical climate to acclimatise himself for the afternoon race in Atlanta’s equally inhospitable conditions.
“I had a vision in 1993 that I would run in the Olympics and now I am close to realising that dream. It is a vision that makes my heart strong and motivates me to try harder.” says Ndivheni.
This year was the first in which Ndivheni raced sensibly and he responded with a respectable time that cut nearly three minutes off his best. He also finished third in the Sao Paolo marathon behind world championships bronze medallist Luiz Antonio dos Santos of Brazil. His only disappointment was his 32nd place in Gothenburg. There he failed to get enough liquid in the confusion at the water tables and dropped back after holding his own with the lead bunch for the first 17km.
With NOCSA providing proper support for all the athletes in the Olympic squad there is no telling what he might achieve next year. “The marathon squad were the athletes who had me most worried when I heard what kind of training they were doing and what they were eating and it was Martin in particular who made me worried,” says top British coach Wilf Paish who is preparing the squad for Atlanta. Paish has now put Ndivheni on a weight training regime and included more speedwork in his programme.
Ndivheni’s fine showing in Sao Paolo in October has been rewarded with an invitation to run the famous San Silvestre Round the Houses race in Sao Paolo. That means the kind of appearance money he could only dream of in South Africa to go with the R12 000 he got for winning the national marathon title and R36 000 for finishing third in Brazil.
That is more than he got for his entire 1994 season and if ever a sceptical local runner needs convincing that quality rather than quantity is the route to success then he need only speak to Ndivheni.