The absence of top class East African runners in the men’s race of the Absa Run Your City Gqeberha 10K is likely to result in the 2024 series opener being a tactical affair.
That’s the view of race favourite Thabang Mosiako – the Nedbank Running Club athlete who will enjoy homeground advantage in the city he has come to call home since trekking down from Potchefstroom.
“I expect it to be a very tactical race. I know our local athletes. We are afraid of each other, so without the Kenyans the race is unlikely to be very fast. No one will want to take charge. So, But I am ready for whatever kind of race it will be. The problem is that we don’t work together the way the Kenyans do.”
Seasoned campaigner Elroy Gelant shares the same sentiment, the Boxer Athletic Club stalwart saying yesterday that the race will be ‘like a chess game’.
Stiff competition
But their adversary, national 10km record holder Precious Mashele and runner-up in last year’s race here in the Friendly City has every intention to make it an honest race.
“We have to be competitive. There’s a lot of money at stake if we run good times and I will talk to Thabang and Elroy (Gelant) that we should go for broke. We cannot be afraid to go for it, not when the organisers have put up so much incentive.”
Sponsors Absa and ogranisers Stillwater Sports have dangled different carrots for South African runners to produce fast times in this year’s edition of the five-city series.
On top of the R30 000 winner’s prize, there is also a massive R200 000 on offer for any male runner who dips below the 28 minute mark – a feat both Mosiako and Mashele achieved last year.
And then there’s a R50 000 bonus for breaking Mashele’s 27:35 national record set in this very race in 2023.
That’s a lot of good reasons for the athletes to go for broke as per the Boxer Athletics Club’s Mashele’s stance instead of pussyfooting about like Mosiako expects them to. The hope is that a smattering of low profile Ethiopian runners who will be participating will help push the locals a little.
The women’s race has no such issues with debutant Diana Chipkorir expected to haul the likes of Glenrose Xaba and Cacisile Sosibo into a fast race if her Personal Best time of 29:56 is anything to go by.
In top form
The Kenyan is in great form having graduated from the steeplechase to the road and running that lightning fast time in Castellon, Spain in February.
She declared herself still fit and ready to take the title home: “I decided to come and run in South Africa in the Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series because I heard that fast times can be run here. I am still in good shape after running sub 30 minutes in my fist official race outside Kenya. My goal is to win the race and if the weather is good, to run under 30 minutes again.”
Her approach is sure to work in Xaba’s favour, the South African 10km champion going into the race with the intention of improving on her 31:50 PB. Add another Kenyan in Fridah Ndinda who ran 31:41 here last year for a runner-up berth and there is every reason to expect the women’s race to be a pretty fast affair.
Cacisile Sosibo – Xaba’s teammate at Boxer AC - who is fresh from a top ten finish in the same distance at the World Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, Serbia last weekend as well as Lesotho’s Blandina Makatisi of Maxed Elite will be there and thereabouts chasing after podium finishes.
Add Ethiopian Salem Gebre - a regular runner up to her compatriot Tadu Nare in the Spar Ladies 10Kkm races – and you have a highly competitive field that should produce a fast paced race on Sunday morning.