forever
Julian Drew
IN just over two hours and 12 minutes on Sunday a simple and largely unheralded young man from the Eastern Transvaal changed the face of athletics in South Africa forever.
Josia Thugwane’s marathon victory in the Centennial Olympic Games vindicated everything that has ever been said about the Mathews Temanes, Mathews Motshwarateus, Zithulele Sinques and all the other great South African runners.
These athletes never had the chance to show the world what they were capable of, but on Sunday Thugwane proved that we too can do what the Kenyans have done. Indeed, as Kenyan athletics coach John Velzian said last year, South African athletics was just waiting for a spark which would light the fuse and lead to an explosion.
Velzian speculated that in Atlanta Hezekial Sepeng might just provide that spark. Sepeng kept his part of the bargain last week but nobody expected there to be such a short fuse before the big bang came.
Whether or not Sepeng’s superb performance played any part in firing up Thugwane and the other South African marathon runners, they certainly looked like men inspired on Sunday. Always in the lead bunch, it was a sight to behold when Lawrence Peu, Gert Thys and Thugwane broke away at the front of the field just after the halfway mark.
Although they didn’t stay there long, that image of three supremely confident Olympians in the green and gold was beamed around the globe. The message was clear: the learning curve is over, South Africa has arrived.
But while Thugwane’s victory has the potential to change South African athletics, there can be no doubt that it has changed his life irrevocably. The 25-year-old cleaner at Koornfontein Coal Mine will never have to hold another broom in his life and, with the right guidance, should be a millionaire by the year’s end.
But therein lies the biggest dilemma. Thugwane has achieved what he has in an environement with which he is comfortable. He is young enough to do it again. Change that environment too much, as the vultures now hovering around him are likely to do, and he could become the next Lucketz Swartbooi — Namibia’s 1993 world silver medallist who was exploited and over-raced until he gave up running.
It is not that Thugwane whouldn’t be allowed to enjoy his hard-earned success and the riches that go with it, but he should be the one who makes the decisions concerning his future.
That Thugwane had the potential for greater things was apparent from the day he won the South African marathon title in 1993 after taking up the sport a few years earlier. American-based athlete’s agent Tony Longhurst, who managed Thugwane from 1993 until he was suspended without a hearing by Athletics South Africa at the end of last year, was not surprised by Thugwane’s victory.
“I always said that one day Josia was going to pull off the big one. When he won the South African title in 1993 you could see the guy had talent, but there was no structure,” recalls Longhurst.
That was when Longhurst brought in Bobby McGee, widely regarded as one of South Africa’s foremost distance coaches. “It was more a case of taking what works for the westernised athlete, looking at Josia’s environment and changing the parameters a little to take his culture into consideration.
“You saw the results on Sunday. He was so professional. Everything he need to do he did and he got it right to a T. You would think he’d been on the international marathon circuit for 10 years the way he ran,” says McGee.
But McGee is taking none of the kudos for Thugwan’s victory. “Josia is actually uncoachable and everything he has done is an absolute credit to himself. Josia is very much a feel runner (like many of Africa’s best runners) and he takes what works for him and basically designs his own training programme,” says McGee.
Although this statement is typical of McGee’s humility, his influence on thugwan’s career is very much understated for he has been coaching Joseph Skosana for more than three years. Thugwane live in Skosana’s shadow at Koornfontein for a long time and still trains with him so that the know-how Skosana has picked up from McGee has been transferred directly to thugwane.
What was clearly apparent on sunday, however, was the technical skills — what McGee refers to as his professionalism — that Thugwane displayed during the race. Little things like making sure he gets his drink during the race have come from McGee.
Even when he and Korea’s Bong-Ju Lee and Kenya’s Eric Wainaina had broken clear and were racing for the medals he wasn’t afraid to drop off the pace a little to ensure he got his drinks and could sponge down his tired legs.
He also took in more fluid than any of the leading runners — he often had an ordinary water bottle in his hand during the race besides his specially prepared drinks — which may have been decisive in the extreme humidity.
Those are the small details that come from experience and can play a crucial role in marathon running. When Thugwane put in his final surge approaching Capital Avenue Bridge with the stadium in sight he was a man in control who had got it right on the day and in the right place.
“This medal is for my country and for my president,” said Thugwane, but perhaps more than enaything it offers a new beginning for his troubled sport.