Category: Features

Cape Town-based endurance junkie Miguel Netto has completed two Comrades Marathons and will be aiming for a third this year, but he has never actually flown into Durban for the race. That’s because he has always ridden there on his bike, and is set to make history by doing so once again this year. – By Sean Falconer

When 1931 Comrades Marathon winner Phil Masterton-Smith climbed on his bike in 1933 to ride from Cape Town to Pietermaritzburg to go run the Comrades, because he could not afford the train fare, he could not have foreseen that nearly 80 years later his incredible feat would become the inspiration for an annual ride that not only commemorates his journey, but also raises a huge amount of money for charity. And he definitely would not have predicted that somebody would repeat his gruelling trip three times… but that is what 31-year-old marketing executive Miguel Netto is set to do this year.

Known as Unogwaja – Zulu for a hare – Phil took 10 days to cover the 1600-plus kilometres to Maritzburg, arriving the day before the Comrades, which he then ran and finished a remarkable 10th. That story inspired Red Sock founder John McInroy and friends to take on the first Unogwaja Challenge in 2011, to raise money for the Comrades charities, and every year since then they have repeated the trip, with athletes from all over the world applying to be part of the team and riding to raise funds for the Unogwaja Light Fund, which channels money to various causes around the country. A few athletes have completed the trip twice, but this year Miguel will become the first to do a third Unogwaja!

ENDURANCE JUNKIE

Miguel’s sporting background includes playing cricket in the UK, but his focus has always been on endurance sports, notably in ultra-distance triathlons as well as ultra running – he did his fifth full Ironman this year, rode the Absa Cape Epic in 2016, and prior to his first Comrades in 2015 he had completed the Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon as well. In that first Comrades, he posted a time of 11:31:53, following the gruelling 10-day ride from Cape Town, and the following year he improved his time to 9:39:46, remarkable given that he had once again done the long ride to get there. When asked why he would want to put himself through this gruelling trip yet again, Miguel simply shrugs his shoulders and smiles…

“There are a few personal reasons, and a few practical reasons. On the personal side it’s the best way to experience the mind-blowing beauty of this country we live in, and it’s a channel for me to make the biggest difference in the field of what I love doing,” says Miguel. “Also, what I’ve gone through with Unogwaja for the past two years has been simply life-changing, so going back and adding a personal tribute by becoming the first to do it three times also adds a little bit to it. But it’s more about signing off on what is probably going to be my last Unogwaja – at least for now – and trying to make sure that my chapter closes with a bang, both charitable and personal.”

From a practical point of view, Miguel explains that the Unogwaja team likes to take some ‘experience’ out on the road each year, hence asking some riders to return for a second year. “At the farewell breakfast after my first Unogwaja in 2015, I was asked to return in 2016. I had a week to consider it, but I’d already decided on the flight back that I wanted the whole experience again… it was a no-brainer! It is a long and daunting journey, so my role in 2016 was as a second to Stoff, John’s dad and the leader of the trip, and if someone had a puncture or needed help, I was the guy to help them. This year may be Stoff’s last Unogwaja, and we’ve walked a special journey together, so it’ll be special to finish off with him. Also, the team this year is perhaps stronger in running and not as strong a cycling team, so there is an element of being able to help them out on the road again.”

Mainly, however, Miguel admits that he is driven by the goal to become the first South African to do three consecutive Unogwaja rides to Durban and he also has some unfinished business with the Comrades route. “My first Comrades was not great – I only just got to the finish – but last year I finished in just over nine hours, so this year, if I could do a sub-nine, that would finish off the personal goal. But the first priority on any Unogwaja is to get every single team member to Durban, and then get them to the finish line of Comrades. If you have to go back to fetch someone on race day, than that’s just what you need to do. Whatever happens on the day, if I can finish, that will be great, and I can go out with a bang!”

INSPIRED BY HISTORY

Miguel’s path to the Unogwaja Challenge began when he met John through the weekly Red Sock Runs. He saw the Red Sockers out running one Friday morning and by chance happened to meet John a few days later, where they spoke about Unogwaja. “The story captivated me right from the beginning. Apart from the history, it struck a huge nerve with me, given my personal endurance background of pushing the body to its limits, plus it had the charitable and empowering point of view, of doing something for this country. At the time I didn’t actually think it was possible to cycle to Durban and run the Comrades, but now I’m about to do it for the third time!”

Unsurprisingly, Miguel says his first Unogwaja was quite an eye-opener, given that he was going into unknown territory that he had not even experienced in his Ironman or Cape Epic events. “It’s such an interesting thing that goes on in your head. The cycle is so daunting, but with nine strangers you’ve just met, you get on the road and you make it through day one… Everything is sore, but somehow you get through day two, and everything is still sore, and then your body just adapts, and it becomes a rhythm. Then you arrive in Durban to take on the Comrades – and everything is still sore – but the great thing is that there is no expectation on you. Having cycled there, no-one is looking at you to do a great time, your goal is simply to get to the finish line.”

“In my first Comrades, the team got me through to halfway and then we just did what we could to get the rest of the team home. It felt like my teammates were kilometres ahead or behind, but the support group told us afterwards that we were actually just a few minutes away from each other most of the day. The whole day we were passing each other and helping each other, and it was the most special way to run my first Comrades.”

LOOKING AHEAD

If all goes smoothly this year and Miguel ticks off his third Unogwaja, he says he already has plans for the next goal on his bucket list, and says his wife, Rosalind, knows all about his plans. They met through mutual friends while both studying at Stellenbosch University, but went their separate ways until meeting again by chance some years later on a boat cruise in Hermanus. They’ve been married now for nearly two years, and Miguel says she is the best race second he could ever ask for. “Shame, she has to put up with my bucket list of endurance events, but thankfully I’m ticking things off quite quickly.”

“After Unogwaja, I want to go back to triathlons, because I’ve had an overwhelming desire for a couple of years now to go to Hawaii for the Ironman World Champs. I fell just short this year, but my dream is to qualify for Kona, even if it takes a few years. I might also try riding the Epic again.” And his fund-raising efforts for charity will also continue, even if he is no longer riding and running for the Unogwaja Light Fund. “I started my own charity a few years ago called Miles for Miracle Kids, when I did my first Ironman, so I’d like to get something like that going again, but I also want to keep the balance between giving back, and personal achievements and having fun.”

“That’s why I have so much respect for John and his Red Sock and Unogwaja initiatives. Anyone can start a charity to raise money for something, but to make sure it has a living legacy and to make it about more than just charity – about using what we do to empower the nation – and to bring a story to life and make it grow all over the world, that is why I’ve hung around so long. Unogwaja is not just a South African thing, it is made up of six or seven different nationalities at any given time on the road, and it just shows that people believe in what we are doing. That’s really special.”

To learn more about the Unogwaja Challenge and to support Miguel and his fellow rider-runners, go to http://unogwaja.com

Can you imagine running some 400km non-stop over five days, on some of the gnarliest trails, fighting extreme fatigue and muscle soreness much of the way? Well, that’s what it takes to run the Munga Trail Run, and we caught up with the winner of the inaugural race, Bennie Roux, to find out more about the experience. – By Brendon Lowson

From the 19th to the 24th of April, many trail running fans across South Africa were glued to their computers and cell phones, tracking runners and following the updates posted on social media as a tiny group of 23 ‘guinea pigs’ took on the inaugural running of the new Munga Trail Run. This 400km self-supported, single-stage race from Belfast to the rim of the Blyde River Canyon in Mpumalanga was the brainchild of Alex Harris and Erik Vermeulen, and it took them 12 months to put the whole thing together, plotting a route that would involve only about 20km of tar, with some 200km of single-track through virgin grassland and forests, and the rest made up of forestry tracks and gravel roads.

And then they gave runners a 120-hour cut-off, which meant that runners needed to cover on average 80km a day for five days in a row! Think about it… that’s pretty much running five Comrades Marathons on five consecutive days. No wonder Alex and Erik dubbed their new event the “Toughest Race on Earth!” But tough is a word that gets South African trail runners going, and none more so than Bennie Roux.

Running Latecomer

Growing up in the Free State, the 39-year-old father of three from Pretoria says that while he played rugby, soccer and cricket at school, he was never really keen on any of these sports. Instead, he found himself drawn to mountain biking and swimming, preferring the individual endurance sports, but running was not his thing as yet. That changed when his brother ran the Comrades Marathon. “I only started running to prove to my older brother that I was a better Comrades runner,” he jokes. He completed his first Comrades in 2000, finishing in a time of 10 hours 21 minutes, and the running bug had bitten.

Last year he ran his 10th Comrades, posting his best time of 6:53:55 on the Down course to go with his 7:05:38 PB on the Up course of the previous year. However, as impressive as his road running credentials are, it is as a trail runner that Bennie has gained the most attention. As he says, “I became addicted to trail running, and as my running improved, I decided I wanted to become famous for winning races, but for a while my most famous trail running moment was getting stuck on a mountain ledge during a race, waiting for four hours to be rescued, and making the front page of all the major newspapers!”

That was in the 2013 Brauhaus 45km Trail Run near Rustenburg, which Bennie was leading at the time when he and the second-placed runner took a wrong turn. Having lost the trail, they attempted to climb down a kloof by jumping from ledge to ledge, and both got stuck, needing to be rescued later by the Mountain Club of SA. While it was a scary experience for him, due to having a “healthy respect for heights,” Bennie did not let it stop him from returning to the trails, but it does mean that the first piece of advice he gives to beginner trail runners is always “Never jump when lost on a mountain!”

Winning Ways

Since then Bennie has become used to the top step of the podium – he won the 2014 Namaqua 120km four-day trail race, the 2014 and 2015 Wolkberg 60km two-day trail race, and the 2016 Addo 168km trail race, amongst others – but the Munga was on another level completely. When the race started, the field of 23 initially stuck together, since nobody seemed quite sure how best to approach the daunting task ahead, but by the 25km mark, Bennie had decided that it was time to go for it. By the time he reached race village three at 250km, he had built a commanding lead of nearly six hours, while behind him the battle for second was now between two women, Nicky Booyens and Tatum Prins.

But while Bennie seemed to be cruising, he did have a few problems along the way. “Being unfamiliar with races this long, I completely forgot to charge my electronics. I ended up in a forest one night, when there was almost no moon, and the unmarked trail was extremely difficult to pick out. Suddenly, I realised my GPS was almost flat and I was only carrying one spare battery! I got a huge fright, because if I’d lost power then I would never have found the trail again.”

Another night he lost all sense of direction in tall grass at the bottom of a valley. “The grass was so thick, and it was very disorientating. Eventually I came out the other side and saw the trail markers, and I was so pleased with myself, until about 300 metres later when I looked at my GPS and realised I was running back along my old path, in the wrong direction! My only choice was to turn around and go through it all again.”

Navigationally Challenged

While those incidents were mildly amusing, they allowed Nicky to close the gap and she ran with Bennie for quite some way of the race. Bennie eventually pulled clear again, but then made a serious navigation error just 24km from the finish, which allowed Nicky to take the lead. “It couldn’t have happened at a more critical time,” he says. “At first, I just thought my GPS was being funny and would auto-correct, but it didn’t, and I ended up having to run hard for an extra 14km to make up for that mistake.” In the end, he only just snuck back into the lead, coming home first in 101 hours and 25 minutes, with Nicky finishing just two minutes later!

Looking back on his epic run, Bennie can joke about the lessons he learnt along the way. “Realising that I couldn’t fully plan my run, I decided to just take it as it comes and adapt. For example, I slept when I needed to, and when I was feeling good, I just kept moving. Still, I’m surprised how well my race went – at no stage did I feel any pressure on myself, except for that last section just before finishing – but next time I will definitely pack more batteries and a good powerbank or two… because if it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen!”

Having made the finals in the 3000m steeple-chase at the African Track and Field Championships last year but then missing the Rio Olympic Games qualifying standard by just one second, three-time SA steeple-chase champion and also former SA 1500m and Cross-Country champ Rantso Mokopane has dug still deeper this year in his quest for international success on the track. – By Reggie Hufkie

It’s turning into quite a 2017 season for 24-year-old Rantso Mokopane. Under the watchful eye of his new coach, Spring Phakhati, he has clocked 14:05.04 in the 5000m, 8:05.16 in the 3000m, 3:38.83 for 1500m, and 8:34.47 in his focus event, the 3000m steeple-chase. These were, at the time of writing, the best inland times run in SA for all these distances, and in April he showcased his great form by bagging three medals (two gold and one silver) at the University Sport South Africa (USSA) Track and Field Championships in Cape Town.

It is not the amount of medals, but rather how he earned them that caught the attention: On day one of the USSA Champs Rantso won the men’s 1500m and just 30 minutes later added a second gold by winning the 3000m steeple-chase. Then the following day he finished second in the 5000m, only just narrowly missing the World Student Games qualifying mark for that event.

The three medals point to the fact that all the hard work in training is paying off as Rantso chases his goals for 2017 and beyond. “I want to stay as healthy as I can so that I can fight for a position in London come August. The dream is to successfully contest the men’s 3000m steeple-chase in Taipei, China at the World Student Games later this year, and qualify for the World Champs in London. After that, I am working towards the 2018 Commonwealth Games final, and as for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, I want to compete in two events and come back with a medal in one!”

With that all said, in his typically humble way Rantso adds that medals are not the main focus for him: “Obviously you would think gold medals, and travelling to fancy places, are the highlights for me… but no, my highlights are those moments where I can inspire an African child to be better. I like to help where I am most needed, where I can raise kids’ spirits and perceptions, so that they can also become successful like me, or hopefully even better.”

RUNNER AT HEART

Born in Saaiplaas, Virginia, a small town in the heart of the Free State, Rantso was always running. Despite contracting TB and pneumonia at the age of four, which meant he was not allowed to engage in any physical activities, as it would place stress on his cardiovascular system, the youngster just would not stop running. “If it was not running to the Spaza shop for my parents, it was running to school,” he says. Then, when he moved up to Hentie Cilliers High School in grade eight, his life changed forever. It was here that athletics coach and teacher Mrs van Graan really ignited Rantso’s passion to run.

“I was always a runner at heart, but this time it wasn’t just merely running, but running with purpose and having a purpose-driven life,” he says. “I liked my high school, because the teachers were like mothers and fathers who pushed me hard in class to pass, and who also supported me on the oval track to raise the name of the school high, and this helped me balance everything, from school to athletics to life’s issues.”

ACADEMIC ENDEAVOUR

After school Rantso moved to Potchefstroom to study at the North West University, and he has gone on to earn a degree in health science as well as a post-graduate degree in business – and he has achieved that in the ‘normal time,’ in spite of spending on average three months of each year abroad for athletics in the last few years. Ironically, he describes himself as being “not so academic,” but his can-do attitude has ensured academic success to go with his athletic success.

“I do my academics in silence and run aloud, but if these qualifications could speak, they would tell you of the many nights where my body was tired from doing lactic sessions, gym and runs, but I still worked on academics. Or the times when I was not present in class, but managed to submit and be graded like a normal student… so these qualifications mean a lot to me,” says Rantso.

And he is in good company in Potchefstroom, sharing the same gymnasium facilities at NWU with the likes of Olympians Caster Semenya and Elroy Gelant, and he says being part of this group definitely helps spur him on. “I take my motivation from people who have done or accomplished something – it might be spiritually, in sport, or academically. I believe the human species is complex and we need different stimulation.”

On the afternoon of 3 May 2017, shortly after receiving news that Karen Brough had won the Modern Athlete Diacore Gabarone Marathon competition, three bubbly running buddies met up for a celebratory ice-cream and to make some plans for our (very) last-minute road-trip. Botswana will never be the same, and neither will Sandra Brownrigg, Karen and I. – BY WENDY SELLER

We are all fairly new at this running thing, having only joined the Easy Equities Born 2 Run club at the end of 2016. So we couldn’t believe that within a matter of minutes, our weekend plans had changed significantly and that we would be running our very first international race four days later. The next 24 hours were frantically busy as we ran around and arranged everything from transport to passports, babysitters and playlists for the four-and-a-half-hour drive to Gaborone.

The drive was a laugh-a-minute adventure, as three city girls took to the road and made our way through quaint dorpies, popped in at the local Prokureur’s Kantoor for a toilet stop, and man-handled the 4×4 on the longest stretch of rugged dirt-road any of us had ever seen.

Four hours flew past in what felt like forty minutes. On the other hand, getting through the border was a testing trundle. Thankfully it was still light when we drove over the line and found ourselves in rush-hour Gaborone traffic. The locals were friendly and happily helped us find our way to the Miami-esque Grand Palm Peermont Hotel. By now we were a little frazzled, and after checking in, we devoured dinner and called it a night.

Excitement Overload
Early on Saturday morning we laced up our running shoes and went for a little exploratory trot to acquaint ourselves with the streets of Gaborone. It was surreal to see the race organisers out before sunrise, putting finishing touches on everything, including painting the picket fence in anticipation of Botswana’a running event of the year.

The three of us were like kids the night before Christmas at race number collection, wide eyed and hyped up for the experience of a lifetime, and proudly paraded our lumo-orange race packs for all to see. None of us slept very well that night – typically we never do, as pre-race excitement had taken hold – but the preparation was done, our numbers pinned to club vests and alarms were set for an early start.

Race morning came and we once again realised how lucky we were to be standing at the start line of the Diacore Gaborone Half Marathon, surrounded by a few hundred runners from every corner of the globe. The race energy was frenetic just prior to the gun going off, but as soon as the race began, we took to the streets with only one objective: To enjoy every minute, to savour the experience, and to do what we love most, run!

Because we had no preconceived ideas about the route, we didn’t bog ourselves down with any pre-race strategies or discussions about elevation, pace and route profile maps, we simply went out there to have tons of fun and make it home with a shiny new medal to show everyone.

Essential Selfies!
After a few kilometres, Mother Nature pulled out all the stops and showed off with the most insane sunrise. The blazing ball of fire in the sky literally rendered us speechless, and we stopped on the fly-over for a couple of selfies. We were tourists, after all! Running in Gaborone can only be described as “city meets bushveld,” with tarred roads surrounded by the remnants of excavated bush, and livestock roaming around – chickens, cows and even donkeys crossing the roads reminded us of the honesty of Africa, and it was brutally beautiful.

The vibe was incredible, with lots of locals cheering and showing appreciation for us foreigners running in their country, and the water points were frequent and well managed in the 36-degree heat. The three of us were on top of the world – a flattish, slightly undulating African world, but we were on top of it anyway. The half marathon route allowed for a very consistent race, and despite stopping to take snapshots along the way, we found ourselves running through the finish line in very respectable times, with the most awesome memories. The cherry on top was receiving the news that Karen had won a prize for finishing fourth in the over-40 age category!

Although the Diacore Gaborone Half Marathon is not one of the toughest races, this was by far the most thrilling race for us. We felt like champions as we hugged at the finish line and then danced our way to medal collection. What a feeling finishing the race with the widest of smiles and happiest of hearts – three friends and sisters in running. And with Botswana having endeared itself to us, we will happily return to run the full marathon in 2018.

One of the highlights of the 2017 Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon was Jenna Challenor finishing second overall and first South African in the women’s race, in her debut ultra-marathon, but few people know how hard she had to work just to be able to line up for the race. – BY SEAN FALCONER

Running a 56km ultra-marathon for the first time and finishing as runner-up is an incredible athletic feat in itself, and Durbanite Jenna Challenor deserves credit based on that alone… but achieving that on top of being a mother of three young girls, having to overcome an injury in the weeks leading up to the race, and overcoming the disappointment of only just missing out on the Rio Olympics a few months earlier, make Jenna’s feat all the more remarkable. And she did it with a smile on her face most of the way – it was only in the last few kays that the strain began to show on her face!

Jenna moved up into second place around the 27km mark when she overtook Tanith Maxwell, and says she only realised she was second when the ‘2nd Female’ bicycle went with her. “I really didn’t expect it, but I just backed myself to stick to my plan. I didn’t know the gap to the Belarus leader, or how far behind me Tanith was, and I didn’t know Caroline Wörstmann had pulled out, I was just running my own race and enjoying the moments. That’s because I didn’t have a goal position or time in mind, I just wanted to stick to my plan in my debut. I had taken all the pressure off myself because you can do that in your debut… there are no expectations on you, and you can just test it out.”

Sporty Roots
Jenna grew up in a running family – her mom has done 10 Comrades – and ran middle distance at school while also doing lifesaving. She was part of the SA team, alongside future husband Brett, that won the Lifesaving World Champs in New Zealand in 1998. She studied teaching, but decided to concentrate on photography as a job once her three daughters, Nicolette, Rylee and Tao, were born, as it allowed her to spend more time with the kids and still run competitively. That saw her win multiple KwaZulu-Natal provincial championship titles at 10km and the half marathon, as well as in cross-country, and she competed for SA in cross country in 2009. Then in 2013 Jenna finished third in the SA Half Marathon Champs and booked her spot in the SA team for the 2014 World Half Marathon Champs in Denmark.

In 2015 she joined the KPMG Running Club, and having focused on the marathon in recent years, Jenna says she felt the time was right to step up to an ultra. “I’ve always wanted to run the Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon, and the Comrades, and this year the opportunity arose to run Oceans as a tester and see how my body will respond. The great news is that I felt absolutely fine, and I really loved the run, even though I was a bit nervous before the start about the extra distance.”

Interestingly, she says that extra distance and slightly slower pace actually allowed her to enjoy the run more. “People often ask if I saw the scenery in this race or that race, but you don’t get to look at the scenery in shorter races. At Oceans, the pace is slower, so you can take in the incredible views and the crowd support along the route. I will admit I was worried about the extra distance, as my longest training run was only 44km, but I used the crowd support to get me through it, and the kilometres just kept coming. The last few kays were a bit hard, because that’s when the extra mileage hit me a bit, but what a feeling running into that finish! And then the incredible messages of support started coming in from the whole of SA. As I said to my husband Brett, if coming second brings you this much praise and love and support, I can only imagine what would happen if I’d won!”

Tough Times…
What most people don’t know is that Jenna had a disrupted build-up to her ultra debut, with a number of weeks out injured and much time spent with her doctor and physio. First she picked up food poisoning in Dubai, which forced her to bail at the 27km of the Dubai Marathon, and then she ran the PDAC 25km race in Durban too hard, clocking 3 minute 20 kays on the downhills, and injured her foot. And that all came after she had suffered persistent knee problems after her three previous marathons, which ultimately saw her doctors find an enlarged fat pad in her knee that was becoming enflamed after longer runs. “It took seven to eight weeks to heal after my first marathon, and again after my third one, to the extent that I had to be on crutches. Thankfully, surgery to cut it down in size sorted it out, so my knee is ‘thinner’ now,” jokes Jenna.

“But having come through that, the foot injury was a huge letdown. It felt like I just kept getting knocked back down, even though I thought I was doing everything right and working so hard. I started questioning if this is the right journey for me, or if I should just be a mom, but something in me would not let me give up. I couldn’t run for four weeks, but I was still in the water every day, pool-running to maintain my fitness, and I did bio every day as well. Mentally, I had to really buckle down to keep on the path to Oceans, but that hard work and overcoming those obstacles is worth it when you get that race where it just comes together. Somebody actually said to my coach after Two Oceans that I must have had a great build-up to the race, but it wasn’t great, it was actually incredibly hard. But where there’s a will, there’s a way!”

Naturally, Jenna says she would not have had such a brilliant run at Two Oceans if not for the support she receives, from family, friends, her coach and medical team, and her sponsors. “I believe it’s not just the athlete that succeeds, it’s the team that makes the dream work, so I owe a lot of credit to all my sponsors – KPMG offers me the opportunity to go to these races, 32Gi keep me fuelled to perform, and I just love the adidas brand. My coach Ernie Gruhn has guided not only my running, but also looks after the training of my girls, making sure it is manageable and fun for them, and I really appreciate that! Then there are my physio Wayne Holroyd and doctor Kevin Subban, who both put a lot of work in and did wonders to get me through my injuries. Wayne has been a best friend since our lifesaving days, so I probably get extra TLC as a result, but he still often tells me to eat some cement and toughen up, since he knows me so well. And I just love the Regents Harriers running group in Durban North. I’ve been doing their long runs since I was 18 so they have been a big part of my journey.”

Unsurprisingly, she reserves special praise for Brett, saying that she simply would not be able to pursue her running dream without his love and support. “Brett comes from an elite athlete background, so he knows what it takes. He often has to step in and help with the family, but he never complains. In fact, I sometimes think he believes in my dreams even more than me! He knows that I love running, that it sets my heart and soul on fire, and this run at Oceans made all the work and sacrifice worth it. I am so happy and forever grateful to everyone that helped me achieve that second place.”

Olympic Inspiration
There was one other disappointment that Jenna says actually inspired her in the year leading up to her Two Oceans debut. In the build-up to the Rio Olympics she ran a 2:37 marathon PB and was in contention for selection as one of the three SA women to run the Olympic Marathon, but in the end she had the fourth-fastest time and just missed out. “It was a big disappointment, but then again, you have to keep in mind that when I joined the Endurocad Programme, and they asked us to list our running goals, Elana Meyer still questioned me about the fact that I was one of the only athletes not to list the Olympics as a goal. I told her that I thought the Games were bigger than me, but then to get so close and miss out was a bit of a kick in the teeth… but it also motivated me greatly. I decided to back myself and see how far I can go as an elite runner.”

Of course, Jenna’s success at Two Oceans has sparked many a question about her stepping up to the Comrades this year, but she says she isn’t ready for that. “Much as I would love to run the Comrades, it won’t be this year. That would be asking too much, too soon of my body. I’m dying to run it, but I’ve only just stepped up to ultras, and think Comrades would be a step too far. Also, I don’t feel I’m finished with the marathon yet, and can still try to get faster over 42 kays. I think that when you step up to Comrades, you say goodbye to faster marathon times. So for the rest of this year I am going to focus on the shorter distances, like the Spar and Totalsports women’s races, and I’ve been invited to run the FNB Cape Town 12 ONERUN, and then I’ll get into another marathon training block towards the end of the year. But for now I just want to enjoy my Two Oceans result!”

In spite of working 12-hour shifts most days at a petrol station and struggling to fit in training, suffering an injury shortly before the race and then being mugged as well, Anele Mnukwa still put in a solid performance at the Cell C AfricanX Trailrun presented by ASICS in Mid-March, and stole the hearts of the rest of the field. – BY SEAN FALCONER & JACKY McCLEAN

When Anele Mnukwa was called up on stage during the AfricanX Trailrun to receive the Sanet Wentzel Spirit Award, he wound his way through the packed hall, along with teammate Francois Groenewald, to a standing ovation. His fellow runners had just heard his inspirational story of overcoming great adversity and running through the pain barrier to be there with them, participating in the three-day stage race that he had long dreamt of running. They stood to applaud his spirit and strength, and pay tribute to a running hero.

Each year at AfricanX, the participating runners are invited to nominate one of their fellow runners (or a team) for the Sanet Wentzel Award, which was introduced in 2010 in memory of Sanet Wentzel of Oudtshoorn. She had run the first AfricanX in 2009, and towards the end of that year, just one day after phoning her running partner to convince her they should enter the 2010 race, Sanet was tragically killed by a drunk driver while out training. The award honours runners who persevere in spite of adversity.

Talent Spotted
Anele works as a petrol pump attendant in the small Western Cape town of Grabouw, just a few kilometres up the N2 highway from the AfricanX venue at Houw Hoek Inn. He started running in 2010 when his work manager noticed his running talent and asked Francois to try coach him, because he was doing well in spite of running long distances in overalls and boots. With proper running gear, Anele soon started making the podium at local Boland races, even winning a few.

“Some of his astonishing podiums came from the Bainskloof Ultra 63km, which he won by miles, and at the Matroosberg Skymarathon 36km, he managed two consecutive second places, just minutes behind AJ Calitz – all with no trail running experience or support gear,” says Francois. “He managed on a few occasions to be selected by Boland for national races in the 10, 21 and 42km distances, and he boasts personal best times of 32 minutes for 10km, 1:11 for the half marathon and 2:32 in the marathon. He also ran 3:38 in the Two Oceans, and in his first attempt at Comrades, he managed to stay in the top 15 for 70km, but had to retire eventually. His lack of training due to long shifts caught up with him, unfortunately.”

AfricanX Surprise
Originally, the two running friends had no plans to run the AfricanX, but just two weeks before the race, Francois received a wonderful surprise. “I’d had my heart set on running AfricanX with Anele since 2011. Unfortunately, we had not been able to cover the entry fee, as Anele does not earn that much as a petrol attendant. However, I mentioned our situation to one of the event organisers the weekend of the Fedhealth XTERRA Grabouw, and to my surprise I received a phone call the very next day, inviting us to run in the colours of one of their sponsors, Big Box Containers. I was speechless… but with just two weeks left to train, Anele and I started that same day!”

This is where the drama started. On their first training run on the XTERRA run route around Eikenhof Dam, Anele fell and seriously injured his leg, gashing his whole shin open. The injury became infected, but he told Francois he was OK to continue, so they scheduled a second training run on that Friday. However, Anele didn’t show up, and later that day Francois found out that while on his way to training, Anele was attacked by seven men who stole his shoes and watch. “Fortunately he got his gear back eventually, as it was his only training gear, but first he had to pay off one of the assailants to disclose who they sold the gear to! We were just thankful that he walked away unscathed, but needless to say, we knew that our dream of racing AfricanX and pushing for the podium would not come to fruition this year, given his injury and lack of consistent training, and our new goal was just to finish each stage.”

So the two friends headed to Houw Hoek on the Thursday afternoon to register, ahead of the Friday first stage, only to find another surprise waiting for them. “When we arrived at race pack collection, we were told there was a fully furnished Big Box container with our names on it. So instead of sleeping in tents like the rest of the entrants, we lived in luxury for the whole event,” says Francois.

Hitting the Trails
In spite of Anele’s injured leg, the pair started each day with a will to do the best they could, and they still managed a very decent placing of 12th pairing in the men’s race on the 37km first stage, 12th again on day two (33km) and 14th on the final day, over 23km, giving them an overall finishing position of 10th in the men’s category. Running in their colourful Big Box team colours, the pair really stood out from the crowd as they powered their way along the trails, still managing to smile when a camera was pointed at them.

According to Anele, it is the challenge that attracts him to trail running, and he says running the AfricanX was a dream come true. “I really enjoyed the AfricanX Trailrun, especially because Francois and I run really well together. Unfortunately this year we couldn’t go as fast as we wanted to due to my injury, but next year we will not hold back. Also, sleeping in the Big Box container was very special. We were really fortunate to be treated to such luxury. And I am really grateful for the Sanet Wentzel Award that I won during the Stage Two prize-giving. It has motivated me to train harder and really give my all at the 2018 AfricanX Trailrun.”

Francois echoes his teammate’s sentiments, saying, “Our AfricanX experience generated mixed emotions. Not being able to compete on our usual level due to my partner's injury meant that we had to postpone any ambitions for a podium finish, but we were still exposed to a realm of support and sportsmanship like never before. The support received from Big Box and the Stillwater Events organisers surpassed our highest expectations.”

The great news for Anele and Francois is that Big Box has extended a free entry to them for the 2018 race, and Big Box has already committed to once again sponsor their container accommodation. “The teaming up of Francois and Anele is really special, because it’s a partnership that is built on a friendship between two individuals who have totally different backgrounds, but share the same passion for running. We will continue to ‘run this road’ with this very special team and have already offered them a Big Box entry into the 2018 Cell C AfricanX Trailrun.”

When 47-year-old Esther Patience crossed the finish line of the Standard Bank Ironman 70.3 in East London earlier this year, she finally completed an epic five-year quest to earn that finisher’s medal! – BY SEAN FALCONER

 

Having run both the Up and Down Comrades as well as various other ultras, Esther was looking for a new challenge in 2011, when she began to notice a number of good-looking athletes training around Johannesburg. She later found out they were triathletes. “I decided I wanted to look that good, so even though I couldn’t swim, and had last ridden a bicycle years before, I decided to take up triathlon. In fact, I decided that I wanted to do the Ironman!”

 

Later in 2012, having moved back to the Cape, somebody suggested she join Steve Attwell’s Embark training group. “I told Steve I can’t swim, and in the first 300m time trial swim, I swallowed a lot of water and missed the cut-off time! Still, my plan was to tackle the 70.3 Half Ironman in 2014 before going for the full Ironman in 2015. Learning to swim was just a minor obstacle! When we went up to Clanwilliam for the Freshpack Fitness Festival in October, Steve made us beginners do the 1.5km swim in the morning. I was lapped by the 3km swimmers, but after that I had a fantastic race in my first tri that afternoon – the 800m swim felt easy by comparison, even though I again came out of the water last. I then did the Slanghoek and Jailbreak triathlons, and I felt confident that I could take on the 70.3 in January 2014.”

 

“In East London I had a fantastic swim, 1:01 for 1.9km, but I had forgotten the 700m run to transition, so it was already 1:10 on the clock by the time I was out of transition, which left me exactly four hours for the bike. I was halfway at 4:30, so I had 1:30 to finish another 45km, but the wind turned and at 60km I had one hour left and knew I couldn’t make it. At 82km I already knew I had missed the cut-off, but I rode till 88km before they took me off the route. The guys were very apologetic for making me quit, and I cried the whole way through that 2km drive.”

 

Revised Goals

Disappointed but undaunted, Esther made a new goal for herself: Finish the bike leg! “T2 became my new goal and I even blogged about the red carpet having to wait.” So she rejoined Embark, now with the Somerset West group under Coach Japie, and focused on her cycling. When the 2015 70.3 came around, Esther had an even better swim, improving by five minutes and feeling confident she could make the bike leg this time… until she broke her derailleur hanger at 37km and was forced to retire. “My cousin has been with me to every single tri since I started. We had cried and drank together after 2014, and now in 2015 she had taken the supporters’ bus to halfway, but never knew I had bailed. So again we cried together.”

 

Training for the 2016 race, Esther started getting niggly injuries, and eventually Japie suggested she rather do the Durban 70.3 later in the year, but rough seas saw the swim leg in Durban cancelled. “I had a fantastic bike, then a great run, and finished in 5:58, but I didn’t feel like I had done a 70.3, and it didn’t give me confidence for East London, as the bike leg in Durban is much easier, so I had to keep on working!”

 

Fortunately for Esther, she literally swam into a new training partner, Nicol Carstens, in the sea off the Strand Beach in 2016. “Two guys swam into us one day and I then saw Nicol post about it on Facebook. It took a while, but I eventually made contact and convinced him to join our group. Turns out we both struggle with the swim – I’m slow, he’s afraid, because he almost drowned at 70.3 and ended up in hospital – and we became training partners and best buds. I finally had a training partner that I could stay with, so I started enjoying the bike training.”

 

Hard Times

On the home front, Esther was now not just fitting her training around her work schedule – she is an IT specialist for Nedbank – but was also playing mother and nurse. “I inherited a child when my sister passed away two years ago. Her teenaged daughter went to live with my parents, but then my father was diagnosed with prostate cancer in December 2014, so my parents and niece moved in with me. He then became paralysed in June 2016, and those were hard times, as my dad was not sleeping well and I was often up in the middle of the night, but we moved our training venue to my house so that I could still go for a ride, come back to move him, and then go for a run.”

 

“My dad passed away on 10 September, and I wanted to do the Cape Ultra Tri in his memory two weeks later, but I got sick and the doc said no race. I wasn’t going to race, but changed my mind because I knew Nicol wouldn’t do it without me. I did OK in the swim, 56 minutes, and he waited for me in transition, but I had no legs in the bike, and on the second lap he shouted at me to pick up my pace. We finished just before the cut-off, then made it through the run, but I knew it meant I was still not ready for East London.”

 

Again fortune smiled on Esther when she signed up with cycling coach Morne Bester three months before 70.3. He cut her training down, which initially worried her, until she realised her legs were no longer sore all the time, and she soon saw her results improve. “Now I could actually overtake people on hills, which gave me confidence for 70.3.” Still, Esther barely slept the night before the big race, and then during the swim she was repeatedly bumped by a girl swimming just behind her, which caused her calf to cramp when she was surprised by another sudden bump.

 

Chasing Hard

She came out of the water in 1:03, knowing she had to be out of transition by 1:10 if she wanted to make the bike cut-off, so she was stressing, and worrying about her calf, but she ran out of there by 1:10. “I now had 4:05 for the bike and knew there was no time for dawdling. I was riding hard and overtaking people, but my virtual partner on my watch was telling me I was in the red, behind the required pace. I had problems with the strict drafting rule, as the big guys would pass me on the downhills, and then I would pass them again on the climbs, but I rode with a man in a pale blue shirt for a while and that helped me. By 60km I was in the green for the first time and felt OK… until my chain came off. Luckily the man in blue came past right then and stopped to help me, and it took less than a minute to fix, but now I was back in the red. From there I just chased hard to keep the man in blue in sight, and at 88km I was in the green by a minute. That’s when I knew I was going to make it, and I entered T2 after 5:13:25, less than two minutes before the 5:15 cut-off.”

 

Now Esther had another problem: Her one foot had become enflamed during the bike leg and she was limping badly, but the doctor managed to rub it back into life while other race volunteers helped Esther calm down and change into running kit. “Steve had told me, kill yourself on the bike, or the disappointment will kill you when you miss the bike-cut-off… and now I was going to limp 21km if I needed to! Luckily my foot soon recovered, and the run actually felt like a victory lap. I stopped and hugged everybody that I knew, because they all knew how hard I had worked to make the bike leg.”

 

“Coming into the finish, I passed the Embark group, all screaming for me, and that was actually better than the red carpet. In fact, by the time I realised I was on the red carpet, I was already almost at the tape, and I was on such a high that I actually ran past the medals, and had to be called back. Getting my bike out of T2, I met the man in blue again, Brian Bailey. I still need to track him down, because he played a significant role in my finish. If I had wasted another minute on that chain, there’s a good chance I would not have made it, and I still want to thank him properly. That night everybody wanted to have a celebratory drink with me, and I remembered my cousin saying two years earlier, if this is how you party after not finishing, wait till you finish! Well, the long-term goal remains to do the full Ironman in 2018, and then we will really celebrate!”

For most runners, the starting gun means start the watch and get to the finish line as quickly as possible, but for others it means start the conversation and make the run-chat last as long as possible. That’s how Michelle Cupido runs all her races… unless the music gets turned up! Then even talking joins running fast as a secondary priority! – BY KYLE DEELEY

Michelle Cupido is a regular at the back of the pack at many races in the Cape, and in spite of being quite short and thus difficult to spot in a crowd, it isn’t hard to find the 49-year-old Pinelands AC runner, thanks to her loud jokes, infectious laughter, sometimes outrageous running outfits, and quite often, rather eye-catching dance moves. Whether it’s before, during or after a race, Michelle simply cannot resist the music, and she just has to dance if she hears a tune she loves. She is thus often up on stage at the big races, busting out moves that pro dancers would be proud of. “I am an entertainer, and I just love having fun, so I just let the music take me,” says the dancing runner.

CARING TOUCH
A Capetonian all her life, Michelle grew up in Kensington before moving with her family to Mitchells Plain, and after school she went to study at the Otto du Plessis Nursing College, then landed her first job. “I started working as a part-time staff nurse at Somerset Hospital, and then went full-time a year after that. A few years later I got married and we had two wonderful kids, a son and a daughter, but two years after getting married I started going through a painful divorce, and that changed me,” says Michelle.

“I started looking for something to take me out of my comfort zone, I wanted to try something I had never done before, and eventually I thought running would be a good idea. I didn’t take part in any sport at school, and figured that it would be a nice change, so I did my first race, the 1999 Big Walk 36km from Simon’s Town to Cape Town, and from that moment on my life was never the same. I finished in a shocking time of 6 hours and 5 minutes, and to be honest it wasn’t as enjoyable as I thought it would be, but the bug had bitten, and soon I had entered my second event, a running race.”

THE BUG BITES
Running soon became a healthy addiction, because Michelle says she felt that if she didn’t run, she was miserable for the day, and that a part of her life felt missing. She began racing regularly, and in 2000 completed her first Old Mutual Two Oceans Half Marathon, in a time of 2:27:55. However, the following year she missed the then stricter Two Oceans Half cut-off of 2:30, coming home in 2:43:04, but the following year, with the cut-off now extended, another 2:43 saw her claim a second medal. Today she has 11 Two Oceans Half medals and her Light Blue Permanent Number, but she says she has never quite reached the heights of that 2:27 again.

“I have completed hundreds of races, and even won an award one year for doing 84 races in a year, but none of them were near the times they could be. I just don’t like competing with the faster runners, and pushing hard in running is not for me. Instead, I remain one of the runners at the back of the pack, talking and encouraging and pushing those who need the help. I know I have the ability to finish and I make it my goal to help others to do so, too, because I know that running as a whole is just a life-changer,” says Michelle.

CONTINUED GROWTH
Another result of her divorce saw Michelle pursue her goal of becoming a registered nurse. She had left Somerset Hospital to work at the Life Health Care Hospital while doing the bridging course, but that didn’t work out and she moved on to the Groote Schuur Hospital, where she eventually achieved her goal in 2014. “It took me two tough years of studying and it required a lot of effort and sacrifice, but I learnt a lot and it was another life-changing experience.”

Besides time with her kids, the other thing that Michelle would not sacrifice during her studies was her running. “I still made time to get out on the road, because I just love talking to all my fellow runners, at training runs or races… but I really go crazy when I hear music, and that’s my biggest distraction when it comes to a race. Music transforms me and sends me to a different planet, and then I just have to dance!”

If you followed triathlon in South Africa in the 90s and into the 2000s, you definitely would have spotted Dominique Donner-Rodd. Not only was she was one of the leading female triathletes in the country, but her stunning looks also saw her grace many magazine covers. Today she is retired from competitive triathlon, but is still involved in sport as a swimming coach as well as Project Manager for the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation in South Africa, which will see her taking on another big swimming challenge this February. – BY RACHEL PIENAAR

Last year at the a’Quelle Midmar Mile event in KwaZulu-Natal, a group of 20 swimmers pledged to swim eight miles each to raise awareness and funds for the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation. Created by former South African Olympic swimmer and now Princess, Charlene Wittstock, the Foundation works to promote water safety and drowning-prevention education for children and their families, because drowning is a leading cause of unnatural deaths in children. One of the swimmers in the group was former SA triathlon champion Dominique Donner-Rodd, who has been friends with the Princess since 1996 and now heads up the South African chapter of her foundation, based in Ballito in KZN.

As a former competitive swimmer, a swim coach and a mother, Dominique is passionate about this cause, and says “I will be swimming eight miles again this year, along with 27 other amazing swimmers who will each be raising funds for the Foundation to continue its mission of promoting and providing water safety education and learn-to-swim opportunities for the children of South Africa. The Foundation is honoured and privileged to be a beneficiary of the 2017 a’Quelle Midmar 8 Mile Charity Club once again, and the money raised will be used to fund our ongoing learn-to-swim programmes. I’m really looking forward to the challenge, which I have trained hard for.”

SPORTING STAR
Growing up in Cape Town, Dominique showed great sporting ability from a young age. While at school she earned provincial colours in swimming, biathlon, life-saving, netball and squash, and went on to earn national junior colours in biathlon and swimming. Having already been introduced to multisport through biathlon, her next step was into the world of triathlon, but it was not the most auspicious start. “My triathlon career started in 1989 at the Constantia Health and Racquet Club with a sprint distance race consisting of a 100m pool swim, 20km bike and 5km run, and I was racing on a borrowed bike. I didn’t have a clue how the gears worked, and as a result had to walk up all the hills! I finished fourth-last overall, but I was hooked. My first inter-provincials were in Port Elizabeth in 1990 and I won the South African Junior title, then earned my first Protea colours for triathlon in 1992.”

That same year saw South African athletes allowed to compete on the world stage again following the end of the Apartheid era and removal of the sporting embargo against the country, and Dominique was selected as part of South Africa’s first team to go to the Triathlon World Champs, held in Canada. “It was my first taste of international competition and I was totally overwhelmed! I exited the swim in the top three, but was only 20th on the bike after transition! I was more like a spectator, in awe of the other athletes, and I finished 50th that day!”

Over the next years Dominique was a regular on the podium in local races while also pursuing modelling work, which saw her appear on many magazine covers and in TV commercials, which raised her profile, helped her attract sponsorships and then turn pro. She won a number of national titles as well as numerous provincial titles, and in 2000 was part of the preliminary Olympic squad for the Games in Sydney, along with Lizel Moore and Kim Carter, but did not get to go. “Lizel had the best ranking by two or so places, even though I beat her at the World Champs that year, and she was the only woman selected. Kim and I were bitterly disappointed as we watched the race on TV.”

On a positive note, that disappointment spurred Dom on to greater heights, and she won the 5FM/Energade series in both 2000 and 2001, and was crowned SA Sprint Champ, African Champ and SA Half Ironman Champ in 2001, while also racing some of the World Cup series events and climbing to 13th on the world rankings. In 2002 she tackled the longer distances and finished 16th at the ITU World Tri Champs in Nice, France. “That was the most memorable race of my triathlon career. The sheer beauty and severe difficulty of the course made it an experience I will never forget.”

WINDING DOWN
Dominique moved to Durban in 2003 and gave birth to son Luc in April 2004, and that saw her retire as a pro triathlete, although she still won the KZN Tri Champs three times and the Duathlon Champs twice. She also finished on the podium at SA and African Champs in 2005, and finished seventh professional in the SA Ironman competition in 2006, before taking a break from all sport in 2007 and getting married to former South African National Bodybuilding Champion Michael Rodd, with daughter Rachel joining the family later.

It was only in 2010 that she competed again, taking on the 70.3 Ironman. “I finished 10th Pro, but also realised that trying to come back into the sport at an elite level at 39 years of age is not an easy task!” says Dom. Nevertheless, she won the 2010 KZN Provincial Triathlon and Duathlon Champs titles, as well as the overall amateur competition at the 2010 African Triathlon Champs, but had to miss the Ironman in PE due to falling ill with mumps. Instead, she entered Ironman France, a bucket list event, and finished a creditable 11th Pro. After that, however, her focus moved solely to her coaching and learn-to-swim work, which she had first started doing in 1990 in Cape Town under then coach Tom Fraenkel, in his Frankie Frog Swimming Programme.

She took over from Tom in 1994 as Head Swimming Coach at the Constantia Health & Racquet and her training squad saw more than 70 athletes receiving provincial colours, of which 16 went on to earn national colours, including Paralympic gold medallist Natalie Du Toit. Today she is still coaching competitive youngsters as well as doing the important learn-to-swim work with the Foundation since 2012, and she says, “Champions come and go, but to me the real judge of my success will be the opportunities I have to be a role model and ambassador for sport, to encourage others and to be the best they can. I have been involved in coaching swimming, biathlon and triathlon for nearly 20 years now, and I remain passionate about coaching children to realise their sporting dreams, because sport has been my greatest teacher in life.”

(Footnote)
For further information regarding the work of the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation in South Africa and how to receive tax benefits for company donations, please mail [email protected].

Not so long ago it appeared that long jumper Luvo Manyonga’s athletics career was over, but after turning his life around and completing a remarkable comeback, he won a silver medal at the Rio Olympics, and now he is aiming for still more honours. – BY KYLE DEELEY & SEAN FALCONER

A top level athletic career is usually only a few years long, and it can take an athlete a number of years, including those all-important formative years in the junior ranks, to work up to the level needed to compete at Olympic, World Champs and Diamond League level. Many athletes then only stay at that level for a short period of time, so they have to make the most of their peak athletic years, and thus losing a few years for a positive drugs test can spell the end of an athlete’s career, because coming back to top level competition can be even harder than getting there in the first place.

That said, long jumper Luvo Manyonga didn’t just come back to compete again. He went all the way to the Rio Olympics last August and brought home a silver medal thanks to his soaring 8.37m leap. “The Olympics for me was the most incredible thing I have ever experienced. I had an incredible few days and I knew it was my time to reach for the stars. I knew I had what it took and I made sure I did what needed to be done,” says Luvo, typically humble about what is one of the ultimate comeback stories!

Jumping to Stardom
Luvo’s athletic talent was spotted when he was attending Desmond Tutu High School in the Mbekweni township on the outskirts of Paarl, in the Boland area. At the 2009 Boland regional track and field champs, he was closely watched by the late Mario Smith, then one of the coaches at the University of Stellenbosch. “Mario noticed my talent after watching me jump, and told me I had the most perfect technique he had ever seen, and that I had serious potential,” says Luvo.

That saw the youngster start training with Mario at Maties, and his first international success soon followed at the 2009 African Junior Champs in Bambous, Mauritius, where he jumped 7.49m for the bronze medal. He ended the year with a new best of 7.65m, then broke through the eight-metre barrier in 2010 with a massive 8.19m jump in Germany, which is still the African and South African Junior Record, and followed that with a 7.99m jump to win the gold medal at the 2010 Junior World Champs in Moncton, Canada.

With a bright career seemingly ahead of him, Luvo turned professional in 2011, and describes it as a major milestone: “Competing as a professional was incredible. I met new people and had to compete against some of the best in the world, and this for me was an amazing achievement.” In July that year he jumped 8.26m in Finland, climbing to second on the all-time SA list, then finished fifth with an 8.21m jump in the final of his first Senior World Champs in Daegu, South Korea. Just two weeks later he was in action again at the All-Africa Games in Maputo, Mozambique, winning the gold medal thanks to an 8.02m jump, and he says “This was possibly the greatest experience of my life to that point. I had won my first real gold medal.”

From Hero to Villain
But then it all went horribly wrong. In March 2012, following drug testing at a national meet, it was announced that he had tested positive for a banned substance. However, instead of it being for one of the usual performance-enhancing substances, it turned out to be the recreational drug ‘TIK,’ a local variant of Crystal Methamphetamine, which nevertheless can still give an athlete an unfair advantage over ‘clean’ athletes.

The story began to emerge of a troubled soul, struggling to balance the life of an international sporting star with his difficult poverty-stricken upbringing in the township. Family and friends had quickly come to rely on him financially as he met with success, and that, combined with his recreational use of TIK since 2011, quickly saw him descend into deep debt. That prompted Mario to start supporting Luvo’s family at his own expense, so that his jumper could focus on training, but by then the drug addiction was taking over.

“All of a sudden I felt this massive burden, because supporting both my friends and family financially was overwhelming for me, and being a regular user of TIK did not help. It is terribly hard to stop the addiction, and the more I tried to overcome it, the more it took over my life,” says Luvo. “I was actually incredibly lucky to have placed fifth in the World Champs in 2011, and it came as a huge surprise, due to the fact I had struggled to train for the competition, as I was sidetracked by my friends and the underworld of the Mbekweni Township.”

Having tested positive, Luvo admitted to an addiction and agreed to drug rehabilitation, and at his doping hearing, Mario’s compelling mitigating argument that Luvo’s poor family situation had contributed largely to his drug-use, instead of a deliberate attempt to enhance his performance, saw the tribunal set a slightly reduced 18-month suspension as punishment, instead of the normal 24 months. “There can be no disputing that the Athlete is at fault… but the exceptional social circumstances that many black athletes encounter in South Africa cannot be ignored,” read the tribunal summation.

Tragedy to Triumph
In 2014, just as Luvo was starting to make his comeback, tragedy struck when Mario was killed in a car accident while driving to Paarl to visit his athlete, and Luvo’s life once again spiralled out of control. Fortunately, national Olympic body (SASCOC) president Gideon Sam visited Luvo’s home and was shocked by the situation, so arranged for Luvo to move to the University of Pretoria’s High Performance Centre. “This was a life-changing move for me. I received accommodation, meals, sport science, medical assistance and coaching, and along the way made a number of friends. Being in an environment with a bunch of elite athletes that train together is motivating and inspirational,” says Luvo. “The temptations that go with staying in Mbekweni were the contributing factor. I needed to be taken out of the township’s environment in order to focus on getting better and overcome my addiction.”

By mid-2015 Luvo was back in full training, and in 2016 he returned to official competition for the first time in some four years, having set himself the goal of trying to qualify for Rio. Remarkably, in March he jumped a then world-leading 8.30m in Pretoria, went over eight metres again in his first Diamond League meet, then took the silver medal behind SA team mate Rushwahl Samaai at the African Champs in Durban. Having qualified for Rio, he managed to put his chequered past behind him as he posted that majestic 8.37 silver-medal PB jump, but now he is already looking ahead to the next challenge: “Rio was great and I was stoked with my performance – to date it was my most memorable event – but with that now behind me, I am focused on 2017, and taking gold at the IAAF World Champs.”