Julian Drew
JUST over a year ago Colleen de Reuck gave birth to her first child, and ever since the soon-to-be-32 year-old Durbanite’s running form has been on an upward spiral. Last Saturday she registered possibly the greatest achievement of her career when she placed fifth in the world cross country championships in Stellenbosch, missing the bronze medal by the narrowest of margins.
The world cross country championships are widely regarded as the toughest distance race on the calendar with many of the world’s top distance runners in events from 1 500m up to the marathon taking part. As she left the Danie Craven Stadium for the final round of the three-lap race she put in a surge going down the ramp and took the lead accompanied by an expectant roar from the home crowd. But it was short-lived and Ethiopia’s Gete Wami and the Kenyans Rose Cheruiyot and Naomi Mugo overtook her.
She stuck resolutely to them though and only Wami put any real distance between her as she broke over the final 200m for a convincing victory. As De Reuck made a brave attempt to take Mugo on the line, Olympic 10 000m champion Derartu Tulu of Ethiopia sprinted past her. All three of them finished with the same time.
Behind De Reuck were some of the world’s greatest runners like world 10 000m champion, Fernanda Ribeiro of Portugal, Sally Barsosio of Kenya and Ireland’s Catherina McKiernan. “I don’t put myself up there with the world’s best and I think that’s half my problem. I’m slowly beginning to believe that I’m also good and I guess I just need to work on it a bit more,” says De Reuck.
Since returning to South Africa just before the cross country trials which she won in February she has she has also run an Olympic qualifying time of 15:24,77 in the 5 000m. “Since I came back I’ve set two personal bests on the track and yet they were my first track races in three years and I haven’t done any track work what so ever. All I know is that I’m in very good shape right now and it must be Bobby (McGee’s) training programmes.
“I’m not doing high mileage or fast track work. He says I must rest because I’ve just done a marathon,” says De Reuck. The marathon is a sore point for her right now because although she is truly world class over the distance she won’t be going to Atlanta for the marathon. Last year she planned to record an Olympic qualifying time of below 2:35 at the New York Marathon in November but then the cold weather and problems in getting her drinks at the water tables reduced her to a walk before she finally finished 14th outside the required time.
Blood tests revealed the race had taken little out of her and so she decided to try again four weeks later at the Honolulu Marathon. A notoriously humid race, last year’s proved to be the worst on record and although she won she again missed out on an “A” standard Olympic qualifier. She opted out of the South African marathon trials a month ago. “If I’d done New York, Honolulu and then SAs I wouldn’t have been in my best shape in Atlanta. I really had bad luck with my races and I was hoping they would take that in to consideration but obviously they can’t take me on a “B” standard if Elana (Meyer) already has an “A” standard,” she says.
The irony is that with the humidity and extremely tough course in Atlanta (people are predicting the men’s winning time at over 2:20) there are many who believe that De Reuck would be a better bet than Meyer. Instead she will now have to hope the wind doesn’t blow at the national track and field championships in Cape Town next month and aim for a 10 000m qualifying time.