Khoarahlane Seutloali pulled off a stunning victory in the Totalsports Two Oceans Marathon this morning beating off a stellar field of former champions, the Hollywood Athletics Club runner clocking a time of 3:10:46.
On a morning when his teammate Gerda Steyn once again obliterated the women’s field to win the race a sixth successive time in 3:29:11, the men’s race was a hotly-contested affair that produced shocks galore.
All three podium finishers were debutants in the top three, as the pre-race favourites got dropped like flies up the killer hills of the “world’s most beautiful marathon”.
In both races, Entsika Athletic Club took the runner’s up berth with Siboniso Sikhakhane coming in after Seutloali with his 3:11:17 while Kenyan Mesert Miruiki crossed the line long after Steyn had done her obligatory television interview. Lesotho’s Neheng Khathala showed that her Soweto Marathon victory late last year was no fluke as she completed the podium positions in third spot.
Ultra rookie Lucky Mohale of Nedbank Running Club came in third in the men’s race, beating off a strong challenge from former runner-up Nkosikhona Mhlakwane, ensuring that Hollywood Athletics Club did not do a one-three in both events.
Steyn did not break the record yet again as many had expected her to do, but the “Smiling Assassin” was still delighted with her run.
“I am not at all (disappointed), I feel it was 100 percent successful. You can’t always break the record, getting a sixth victory in a row is a 10 out of 10. I planned to go a little faster in the first half, a minute quicker than last year and I was right on plan because it made everyone tired. I opened a gap early on and it was relaxing and a motivation.”
If Steyn’s victory was expected, Seutloali was straight out of left field – the Hollywood athlete not having been mentioned once as a potential victor pre-race. And how could he have been when he was lining up against the likes of former champions Onalenna Khonkhobe and Givemore Mudzinganyama as well as Lloyd Bosman who was runner up.
But as the race spat out the runners off the big leading bunch one-by-one, Seutloali stayed the course and stuck to his game plan thanks to the lessons he picked up from his eight place finish from last year.
“I am very happy because I was number eight last year and I saw that I needed to improve some aspects of my running,” he said during the television interview.
Mohale’s podium finish was perhaps the most surprising and the lanky runner expressed his surprise too afterwards, having managed to beat off Mhlakwana’s late surge.
“I was stressed because for three months I was in camp not seeing my family. That’s why I did not want to give up the fight.”
IOL Sport
