Having recently failed to recapture the Athletics South Africa (ASA) national half marathon title, Precious Mashele will be keen to make up for that disappointment with a victorious showing at the Absa RUN YOUR CITY DURBAN 10K Durban this weekend.
The Boxer Athletics Club star had expressed his desire to win the 21.1km championships in Gqeberha last month having been dethroned in absentia by Melikhaya Frans the previous year.
But Mashele, renowned for his powerful finish, was incredibly beaten into third place in the final kilometre by the young and upcoming star that is Thabang Mosiako as well as Lesotho’s Tebello Ramakongoana.
He is still smarting from that defeat and you can bet the athlete from Ga-Maraba near Polokwane in Limpopo will be out to win yet another one of the popular 10km races in KwaZuu/Natal on Sunday. Mashele is the current national 10km record holder courtesy of the 27:35 he ran in the Absa RUN YOUR CITY GQEBERHA 10K in April.
His inspiration will not only be from his desire to erase the pain of defeat in the half marathon for there’s also the lure of serious financial gain.
Such are the incentives on offer that the organisers are anticipating that a good number of the men will dip under the 28 minute mark to add to the five that South Arica already boasts.
Mashele’s Boxer teammate Stephen Mokoka is one of those (Shadrack Hoff 27:50; Mosiako, 27:52 and Maxine Chaumeton, 27:58 being the others) although the legendary runner is yet to run a sub-28 on South African soil and has always expressed a desire to do that.
This weekend could well be the time he does that, what with Mashele in the form of his life and certain to pull the bunch with him into running fast times. The elder statesman will no doubt look to get one over his former protégé who has generally gotten the better of him in recent races.
Mashele has once again expressed a desire to run a Personal Best which would mean a new national record: “I know I can go faster. I was running well in Gqeberha and know I can do better I want to break the record again.”
There is a R100 000 incentive for anyone who dips under 27:40 and an extra R20 000 will be added to that figure should there be a sub 27:30 run. It makes for what should be a thrilling fast men’s race.
The big excitement, however, is likely to be in the women’s race where Ethiopia’s Yalemzerf Yehualaw will be out to set a new world mark in the Women’s only race. Yehualaw is the women’s 10km world record holder in the mixed race (men and women) with a time of 29:14.
But she now wants to better Kenyan Agnes Jebet’s time of 30:01 in the women’s only race and the organisers of this weekend’s race have obliged her by having the Absa RUN YOUR CITY DURBAN 10k to feature a separate elite women’s start.
@Tshiliboy
IOL Sport