Oceans
ROADRUNNING:Julian Drew
DESPITE all the noise about breaking the course record coming from Zithulele Sinqe in the lead up to Saturday’s 56km Two Oceans Marathon, the safe money for the title is riding on Abel Mokibe of Scaw Harriers.
Both Sinqe, last year’s winner and South African record-holder over the standard marathon with his 2:08:04 from 1986 – and Mokibe – who posted his marathon best of 2:11:07 when winning the 1992 Olympic trials – have respectable pedigrees over the 42.2km distance but Mokibe looks to be the man in form at the moment.
“I don’t believe Abel can lose the race unless something unexpected happens to him,” says Mokibe’s coach Francisco Andre who is not known for making rash predictions. “His motivation is very strong and he’s committed to this race. I know when he’s committed because I’ve seen it before and Abel is really living this race. He’s in superb shape right now and I honestly don’t think anybody can beat him.”
After campaigning overseas since 1992 when he was the only South African to finish the Olympic marathon in Barcelona, Mokibe has put his efforts into racing locally from last year. “I’m not really fond of the ultra races like Two Oceans and Comrades but Abel is 33 now and we have to look at what is best for him,” says Andre. “He’s a guy who could have made it overseas but he chose to remain an amateur and keep a steady job and now he’s approaching the end of his career.
“If he wants to make a name for himself in this country then he’s got to run in races like this and the Comrades, but at the moment I think if I were to mention Comrades to him I would scare him to death.”
That is because Mokibe is still a novice at ultra-marathons. Last year he ventured beyond the standard marathon distance for the first time, winning the 50km City to City race by a huge margin. “It was easy to convince him to move up to 56km after that,” says Andre.
Then in December Mokibe won the Soweto Marathon and after that began training for the Two Oceans. He pushed up his mileage to 180km a week over a three-week period during which time he did two runs of 3:15 which is about the time it takes to run Two Oceans. Like the hilly Cape peninsula course, Mokibe’s long runs were routed through the tortuous gradients of Johannesburg’s southern suburbs.
“It was very hot but he looked so comfortable I couldn’t believe it. It was very impressive to watch him running so effortlessly,” says Andre. That phase of his training finished three weeks ago and the following week he ran the Jaguars half- marathon looking for a time of around 67 or 68 minutes. He finished third after pushing the pace and easing off when he was ahead of schedule, posting a time of 66:47.
But while Andre is happy with Mokibe’s form what about Sinqe if he goes for Thompson Magawana’s course record of 3:03:44 from 1988? “If Sinqe is going for the record then good luck. That’s just one less person to worry about in the race,” declares Andre. That is probably because he understands better than Sinqe that Magawana was in something like 2:09 marathon shape when he ran that time and unless some really big money to rival the overseas marathons is made available for the Two Oceans it is a record that is likely to last a very long time.
Anyone in 2:09 marathon shape simply won’t be racing the Two Oceans while the rewards are so low in comparison to the rich pickings overseas. “Abel will adopt a conservative approach at the beginning which is a concern for me because I know it will be very boring for him, but hopefully it will pay off towards the end. He’ll probably go through the half-marathon in about 70 minutes and from there he’s got to tackle the hills. I think he should do a 3:08 or 3:09 but if there’s someone to spice the race up a bit then I’d say it could be a 3:06,” says Andre.
The tough Two Oceans course is tailor made for a strong hill runner like Mokibe and with Sinqe and last year’s runner-up and Comrades winner Dmitri Grishine weak in that department, it really is difficult to see anyone challenging the shy distance man from Tembisa. By the time Mokibe reaches Constantia’s Nek the race should be over and he will be able to dedicate his victory to his father who passed away last week.
Mokibe has been keeping good company in his preparations for Two Oceans and his training partner at Scaw is 1995 Two Oceans winner Simon Malindi. Unfortunately Malindi had a hamstring injury recently and although he has done plenty of mileage he couldn’t do any quality work. Andre doesn’t think he can do better than fifth but if he doesn’t look fully recovered by Saturday then he won’t run.
That will put a dent in Scaw’s hopes of wresting the team title from Goldfields Security but a Mokibe victory will still ensure a smile on their faces.