Category: Features

With seven kays to go in this year’s Otter African Trail marathon, Iain Don-Wauchope rolled his ankle and thought he had blown his chances of a third win, but he fought back and showed once again why he is one of SA’s finest trail runners. – BY SEAN FALCONER

Right from the start, the 2014 Otter was a three-way tussle between Iain, Madiba and AJ Calitz, Thabang put in a surge that dropped AJ, and when Iain hurt his ankle, the Gauteng flyer looked favourite to win. However, Iain was not done yet. “When I rolled the ankle I told Thabang to go and he immediately put in another surge. I thought he was gone, so I even stopped for water, but I think he burnt himself out a bit, and when I popped out onto the rocks with just two kays to go, I saw him just ahead and passed him walking on the rocks.”

Iain crossed the line in a new course record 4:21:30 for the west-to-east RETTO route, the ‘Reverse Otter’ run every second year, having pulled nearly three minutes clear of Thabang (4:24:27), and AJ clocked 4:31:17 for third. “Catching Thabang was actually a bit of luck, and I certainly thought AJ was the man to beat this year, but I think he had already expended so much energy pre-race because the focus was on him,” says Iain. “Perhaps if I lived in the Cape and did more events, instead of living in the Drakensberg Mountains like a Hillbilly, I would get more media exposure, but I think it works in my favour – no big sponsors, no media attention, no pressure. Even though I have now won it three times, next year the focus will probably once again be on AJ, Thabang or Lucky Miya, but that suits me.”

Under the Radar

It is actually surprising that Iain (39) doesn’t enjoy as much media attention, because he boasts a mightily impressive sporting CV. In trail running, he has not only won the Otter three times, but has also won the ProNutro AfricanX Trailrun twice in tandem with his wife Susan, plus has two wins each in the Skyrun, Rhodes Ultra, Southern Storm and Mast Challenge, and has twice been selected to represent SA at the World Trail Running Champs. In multi-sport, he won the Western Province Duathlon Champs title in his age group in 2004, then the SA Champs title as well, and qualified for the World Duathlon Champs, and he’s also won the multi-discipline Totalsports Challenge, been part of the winning team at the Bull of Africa adventure race, and posted numerous wins in the Jeep, Mudman and Teavigo series.

In 2004, Iain admits he made a costly mistake when he raced the Half Ironman in somebody else’s number. “I raced without really knowing what I was doing, even borrowed a bike that was the wrong size, but then I finished 12^th overall and second South African after Raynard Tissink! I never dreamt I would finish that high, so I had to admit to the organisers I was not legally entered, and they gave me a two-year ban from all Ironman events. The next day Mark Smith of GU invited me to join a team with Raynard to compete around the world in Ironman events, but I was now banned! That could have sent my career in a very different direction, and it was a very stupid thing to do.”

 

Talent spotted

Iain grew up on a farm outside Greytown in KwaZulu-Natal, until the family moved to the central Drakensberg and established the Mountain Splendour Eco-Resort near Winterton. In 1993, while running cross country in his final school year at Maritzburg College, he was spotted by a talent scout and offered an athletics scholarship to Western Kentucky University in the USA, where he completed a B.Sc. Civil Engineering, Cum Laude. “I was torn, because I really wanted to go to Stellenbosch University, where many of my mates were going, but many people said I should take the opportunity. With hindsight, I would have loved to spend my first year or two of varsity in Stellenbosch, then go to the States when I was emotionally and physically stronger, because the American way of ‘more is better’ saw us doing 100 miles a week in training. We were basically doing marathon training for cross-country, and it burnt me out.”

Upon his return to SA in 2001, after five years in the States and two years backpacking the world, Iain also completed a Masters in Environmental Management at the University of Cape Town before taking over the family business in 2005. He married Su in 2007 and they now have two young children, but while all that was happening, he took a break from competitive running. “When I came back I got into mountain biking, adventure racing, swimming, paddling, duathlon and triathlon, and it took me many years to focus on running again. Now I believe in more speed work and rest than doing high mileage. I actually do very little training these days, only about 60km a week, but people don’t believe me when I explain how little I did before Otter. I think the key was being undertrained, arriving at the race without any expectations.”

Something New to Try

Looking ahead, Iain says his plans for 2015 include running AfricanX again with Su and defending his Otter title, and if the dates work out, he would love to give the Table Mountain Challenge and Cape Ultra Trail events in Cape Town a go. Looking abroad, Iain hopes to once again be selected for the SA team for either the World Long Distance Trail Champs or the later World Marathon Trail Champs, but he also has a few obstacles he’d like to get over during the year. You see, just after his Otter win, Iain decided to try obstacle racing for the first time at the Impi Challenge Gauteng – and promptly won it!

“I felt like a kid on the farm again, just having fun, but it was a relatively easy course. Then came the Stellenbosch Impi, featuring a lot more running, which suited me, but the obstacles were also tougher, especially carrying a concrete block, and that allowed Stuart Marais to pull away for the win. I felt a bit jaded on the day, but now I am really excited to do more obstacle events. However, I think I will stick to the Impi, because to do the Warrior you need to put yourself in the gym five days a week. The Spartan series is also coming to SA, so I will look which events suit me best, with more focus on running and less on strength.”

 

Having experienced both elation and disappointment in her 2014 season, SA’s top female 400m hurdler, Wenda Theron-Nel, is getting herself ready for World Champs in 2015, Olympics in 2016 and hopefully a long-awaited new SA record. – BY LAUREN VAN DER VYVER

Things didn’t go as well as Wenda hoped at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow earlier this year. Having broken her 400m in May in Potchefstroom, going from 53.41 seconds to 52.53, and then bettering her 400m hurdles PB from 55.36 to 54.82 in June in Marrakesh, she went to Scotland full of confidence in her speed and form. However, having made the final of the hurdles, she was disqualified for a technical infringement – but the Pretoria-based speedster bounced straight back from that disappointment to win gold at the African Championships in Marrakesh just a week later, in a time of 55.32.

“Winning was such a surprise after not doing as well as I wanted at the Games. I went to Morocco with no expectations. I just wanted to have fun, but came away with a win. It was my year’s highlight!” says Wenda, but then adds, “I’m driven by my passion for the sport. Medals are great, but when they become greater than the passion, then it’s time to stop. Instead, you train for that one out of ten race that goes perfectly – the pattern, hitting the hurdles seamlessly and everything clicking…” And judging by her times and results, she had that a few times this year!

Natural Speed

Born and raised in Worcester in the Cape, Wenda was always impressing at athletics days at school, starting with 50m sprints as a youngster and also taking part in hurdles and the long jump. It was only after school, when she moved to the capital to study Dietetics at the University of Pretoria, that she turned her focus to the 400m hurdles and found that it clicked. Having completed her studies and gotten married to Jacques in 2012, she now works half days so that she can pursue her dream of qualifying for the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

“It’s any athlete’s dream to be at the Olympics, and it is up to me to take it further. After every year, it becomes a bigger possibility, and I’m blessed to have great support,” explains Wenda. “My husband gets it. He is a triathlete and has run Comrades, so he understands the love. There is no issue getting up early because training comes first.” Her family has also been a consistent support in her career. “They’re proud of me and win or lose, they’re there. My coach Hennie Kotze, who I’ve been with for four years, is also important to my success. I work hard, but it’s his encouragement and programme that’s pushed me.”

All Passion

Currently busy with off-season training, for the next three months Wenda will get back to basics at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria, mixing hill sessions and stairs, for strength and power, with track training twice a week to get her fitness up for the coming season. She also mixes it up with spinning and kickboxing in the off-season. Come February, Wenda will focus a little more on technique and speed, adding tyre-pulling sessions with shorter sprints to work on her sharpness. “Right now, the volume is pushed up, but it’s not as intensive. We do group circuit training and I gym on my own twice a week and on the weekends. With my work hours so flexible, I can arrange when I train,” she says.

“Also, being in dietetics, it’s easier to stay healthy, and with World Champs coming up in Beijing next year, it’s ideal to keep your race weight in check. I want to make the final at World Champs – in 2011 I made the semis, and I want to go one better – so that is my goal, and then on to Rio 2016!” Another goal the three-time SA champion and All Africa Games silver medallist in 2011 says she hopes to achieve this coming season is to challenge Myrtle Bothma’s long-standing 1986 SA record of 53.47. “I have to drop a second off my time, but I think I can do it!”

It was all going to plan for trail star Megan Mackenzie earlier this year as she picked up win after win, until a nasty injury sidelined her and forced her to withdraw from the Trail World Champs, but she’s determined to bounce back stronger than ever.
– BY LAUREN VAN DER VYVER

Having won the Pronutro AfricanX, Lisa’s Forest Run, Northern Trail Challenge and Mnweni Marathon in 2014, Megan Mackenzie was in the SA team to go to the USA for the World Long Distance Trail Champs in August. However, a fall at the Mnweni Marathon put paid to her World Champs dream, and she described that race experience as both a best and worst moment.

“I trained hard for Mnweni because it was a World Champs qualifier and I won, but the fall affected me. It started as little fractures in my hip and expanded like a car window cracking when I fell.” Two months after falling, she still hoped she would be ready for the World Champs, but training just made the problem worse and Meg ended up on crutches for eight weeks. “I injured myself more. It was a huge disappointment withdrawing, but all I’ve done is shift my goals instead of giving up.”

Natural Talent

Born on a farm in Cato Ridge in KwaZulu-Natal,

Megan went to boarding school at St Anne’s in the Midlands and went on to study economics and politics at Rhodes University before completing her Honours in International Relations in the USA. Later, she completed her Post-graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) and did a specialised course in dyslexia, and now works at Bellavista School in Johannesburg. Growing up in an active family, she tried her hand at canoeing, cross-country and adventure races, but says she only took up competitive running in 2011, and found her niche in trail running the following year.

“It was July 2012 at the Rhodes Ultra Trail where I won and broke the ladies’ record,” she says. “I wasn’t trained properly and I didn’t wear a watch. I just ran. Salomon then approached me to be an ambassador and put me on their elite team and everything spiralled from there.” Last year, Megan won the Mnweni Marathon, Redbull Pyramid Challenge, Thule 4 Peaks and Rhodes Ultra, also bagging podium spots at the Redbull Lionheart and 3 Cranes Challenge. She was also fourth at the Otter. “I’ve got a strong mind for the bigger distances,” she explains. “I find in stage races, it’s three days where you can get absorbed. You spend time with athletes, you reflect, you work out what you can do better. I love strategising!”

Learning Curve

Looking back, Megan recalls her mixed category win at AfricanX earlier this year with teammate Andrew Erasmus as something that stands out. “I didn’t know what to expect because I hadn’t raced with anyone before,” she says, “but it was unbelievable, because Andrew and I just gelled. We didn’t win stage one, then we won stage two, but we were behind so we needed to catch up time on day three and it was incredible being able to do it!” The pair finished tops, even though they had to wait a minute before they figured out they had clinched it. “What relief! The great thing was that we got to share that feeling…”

Later in the year she then found out how to deal with the lows that followed. “I could have easily let go after three months out, but my brother, family, friends, my team and work colleagues have been so supportive!” Now Meg is focused on getting up and running again, keeping up cardio by cycling and swimming a couple of hours a day, going on the anti-gravity machine and doing rehab and strength work. “My coach Neville Beeton has been positive and we’ve been able to start from scratch again properly. Next year there is World Champs in July and the Otter to aim for, and my mantra is ‘Run happy, light and free.’ I just remember that I’m doing what I love, bouncing along a trail!”

Waiting for Chet Sainsbury outside his house at 5:45am to go for our midweek longer run, I often ponder as to why, what is there to prove. Between us we have run 67 Two Oceans, hundreds of marathons and so many other runs. The obvious answer could be to watch the early sunrise over the Helderberg Mountains, to enjoy good health and the joy of fitness, yet for me it can all be embraced in a single concept: Friendship.

– BY JOHN BRIMBLE

Chet and I go back a long way. We were at school together. Later he offered me a short-lived job at Old Mutual. For his and my sanity, I did not linger long. Yet through friendship we ran many of the Cape trails well before they became the fashion; we hiked even more trails with our families; we celebrated mutual birthdays; we shared exhilarating races, and later, memories of past glories.

A good friendship like ours, glued together over so many races and training runs, allows us to be very different personalities, yet still enjoy each others’ company. Mutual respect is the basis of this. I know of the huge stresses and responsibilities Chet faced with driving Two Oceans, what he had to deal with for many years being Chairman of Western Province Road Running, and his other rugby portfolios. Yet on the road or trails, he is a different, more relaxed person. We can laugh at the absurdities of others, discuss rugby and how we would make it better, or politics, visits to family overseas, and of course, how we will run the perfect next Oceans – and the training schedule it will entail.

Yet the respect is also based on specifics. How can I ever forget when only two weeks after running the Dolphin Marathon – between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund, in a howling wind – we ran the 1986 Kellerprinz Winelands Marathon over one of the hilliest routes in the country. To get a gold as a veteran you had to run sub-2:50, and the race organiser had been vociferous in saying there was no chance Chet would do it. At halfway we were on 84 minutes, when the schedule required 81, and with the biggest hill, not unlike Constantia Nek, still to come, we had to run negative splits to go under 2:50. The look of deep embarrassment on the race organiser’s face was, as the advert said, “priceless.”

EXTENDED CIRCLE

Yet it is not only about Chet and I, there are others, and building up to each Oceans, our group of runners with 30 or more Two Oceans completed can be as competitive as any younger racers. Tony Abrahamson with 39 behind his name, still pushes the pace whilst managing to look graceful, and Mark Wagenheim, who is renowned for having the most organised training group in town – consisting mainly of a bevy of AAC ladies – has 36. One has to do an annual Nek to Nek with them in order to keep abreast of current trends: Which is the best Woolies to shop at right now; is Banting a con or not; do those face creams really work; and to pick up recipes that become favourites for the next few months – this year it was Terry’s date rolls that took top honours.

Yet it is not only about old and valued friendships. That common denominator of running has allowed me to expand friendships across age groups. The pleasure of watching a younger runner build and then succeed in their ambitions, whether it be Comrades, Oceans or a marathon, compensates for our fading abilities. Through them we can still race and be relevant.

FRIENDS FOREVER

But friendships are the glue that keep us running. Not faster, or longer or further, or to boast how many Two Oceans we have done, but to be still participating in life. We are not accepting our boundaries, nor allowing age to relegate us to mere watching life through TV, and sliding into turgid comfort.

Friendships built over decades of running. Running through the seasons, running the hard yards, running when you floated along and running when your body cried “no more.” Friendships giving us purpose to get up in the morning, to step outside and share the joy and pain, health and injuries, happiness and despair. To share the sunrise and the sunset with a friend.

 

Having represented South Africa in both gymnastics and triathlon, Dominique D’Oliveira has now turned her focus to obstacle course racing, and with a number of wins and podium finishes already under her belt, she’s well on her way to more sporting success.
– BY SEAN FALCONER

Arriving at the tough Tarzan rope swing obstacle with about one kay to go in the sixth elite Black Ops race of the Jeep Warrior Series in Johannesburg in September, a muddy Dominique took a second to catch her breath as she waited her turn, watching as the girls ahead of her lost their grip or ran out of strength and fell off the ropes. Carla van Huysteen had arrived at the obstacle first, nearly 15 minutes clear of second-placed Hanneke Dannhauser, with Jetaime Ribbink and Dominique a few minutes further back, but neither Carla nor Hanneke could get past the ropes.

As they walked back to try yet again, Dominique wiped her hands, took hold of the first rope and went for it, sailing right through on her first attempt, not stopping to worry about the fact that she cracked a few ribs falling off this same obstacle at the Warrior Nationals in November. While the other elite girls could just watch, she headed for the finish, crossing the line with what has become her trademark leap for joy and vivacious smile, to claim her second Warrior race title – and it took another 40 minutes for the second-placed woman to finish!

“They always leave the hardest obstacles for the end at Warrior, so my strategy in the race is to hold back in the middle and save my energy for the end,” says Dominique. “In Warrior, you keep trying to get past an obstacle, or you can do burpees instead and move on, but then you don’t get an official finish and don’t qualify for prize money. The problem is, the more you try an obstacle, the more you get fatigued. I actually finished and went back to go cheer the other girls on, but Carla and Jetaime just couldn’t do it, and Hanneke eventually did it after about 20 tries, despite falling awkwardly and breaking her ankle!”

Upper Body Strength

Dominique (30), who works as a personal trainer in the Durbanville area of the Cape, did her first obstacle race at the 2012 Impi Challenge in Stellenbosch, but just for fun. Then in 2013 she did the Impi again and another smaller obstacle race, where she heard about the Warrior series, so she entered the Cape Town leg of Warrior and won it, then went to the Nationals in Joburg. After recovering from her rib injury and completing a second 70.3 Ironman, she finished third in the first Impi Cape Town of 2014, picked up second and third positions in Warriors in Joburg and Ballito, won the next Joburg Warrior, and got third in the Cape Town leg in October (where she took it easy due to not having recovered fully from a flu bug).

One of the reasons Dominique has taken so quickly to obstacle racing is her upper body strength, honed by 14 years of competitive gymnastics. She competed for SA at the World Champs in Belgium as well as competitions in Italy, Germany, Tunisia, Malaysia and Namibia, but in 2002, ranked number one in the country, she faced Commonwealth Games disappointment. “Not long before the Games, some or other committee decided that they didn’t want to send a female team, because they didn’t think we would medal. Typical South African mentality, they just flushed people’s sporting dreams down the drain… but I didn’t let it stop me, I carried on competing and then got a scholarship to go study in the US.”

That saw Dominique earn a B.Sc in Criminology and Psychology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City while competing on the highly competitive NCAA circuit, alongside elite gymnasts from all over the world. While there she also studied personal training, and not long after getting back to SA, she started working part time at Virgin Active to save up to pursue her newfound passion: “A friend of mine in the US took me up in a little two-man plane and let me take the controls for a while, and I just fell in love with it. So when I got back in 2007, I decided I wanted to become a pilot, but when I realised how long it would take for me to get my commercial licence, I changed my mind, because I knew it would consume my life just as gymnastics had. Also, I was enjoying the personal training, because it felt like it was where I was supposed to be. I still want to do my private pilot’s licence one day, but career-wise I have a passion for helping people and being in a sporty, health and wellness field.”

Multisport Talent

Another passion Dominique began developing while in the USA was for triathlon, when a friend dared her to do a sprint triathlon. “I had never done any kind of endurance event in my life, and my longest runs had been 60m down the vault runway, so I nearly died just trying to run one kilometre! But I borrowed a mountain bike to train on, rented a wetsuit and a road bike for the race, and ended up coming third in my age group, so I thought, hey, I can do this.”

“When I moved back to SA, I was still trying to figure out what to do with my life and was actually thinking about trying pole vault, because I had heard that gymnasts make good vaulters, but a couple of friends were doing triathlon, so I did some more sprint tri’s. I moved up to my first Olympic distance tri in 2010, then the first of my two 70.3s in 2013. I think I’ve come a long way with the endurance side of things, even though I don’t think my body is naturally built for running, so this year I have really worked hard on doing base mileage.”

Going Longer

That saw her line up alongside friend Natalia Ongers at the three-day ProNutro AfricanX Trailrun in March. “I had never run that far before, so for me it was more a mental thing to get through the distance. I liked that we had no expectations, just wanted to have fun and get through each day, so we were pretty stoked to finish 10^th while having such a jol, and I want to do it again next year.” Dominique’s bucket list also still includes the full Ironman, “to tick it off the list,” and the Comrades someday as well, but she is in no hurry, because right now obstacle racing is her focus.

“It really is so much fun, because it challenges my whole body, and my mind, and reminds me of the challenge gymnastics gave me. And now that I have found that I am quite good at it, I want to give it a good go. That said, I’m kind of in limbo between triathlon and obstacle racing, because I’ve still got an entry for 70.3 next year, so when obstacle racing is done for the year, I need to shift focus back to tri. My original goal was to try and podium in my age group at 70.3, and I would love to get to the 70.3 World Champs, but with the success in obstacles and my change of focus, I have to be realistic. On the other hand, if I do well in the Warrior series next year, I could get to the Obstacle Racing World Champs in the USA. Now that would be awesome!”

With a can-do attitude and some help from clubmates and friends, car guard Abre Jordaan has managed to earn 12 Two Oceans and 11 Comrades medals, despite not being able to afford to pursue his running passion. 

– BY SEAN FALCONER

For the past 18 years, 46-year-old Abre Jordaan has spent nearly every single day in the Somerset Mall parking lot in Somerset West, come rain or sun, keeping guard over the parked cars. Spending up to seven hours straight on his feet, hoping that the car owners will give him a few Rand to say thanks, he then still finds the energy and motivation to go running. But what most people don’t know is that these car guards are not paid by the mall – they actually pay a daily fee of R28 to ‘hire’ a section of the parking lot, and then rely on tips to make a living. “Many people think we get paid, which means they don’t need to give us anything, so if I can make R150 a day in tips I am happy, I can survive,” says Abre, “but we get no days off, no benefits, and if you’re sick and can’t work, you not only have no income, you lose your spot to somebody else. It’s a hard life.”

Sad Story

Abre’s story began with his mother being hurt in a car accident while pregnant, resulting in him taking a hard knock to the head. “I am normal, but I feel I am a bit slower with some things – but then the difference comes in when I run. That’s the only place I am fast,” he jokes. His father abandoned the family when he was still little, and his mother subsequently remarried and moved to Touwsrivier, while Abre stayed in the Cape to attend Trade School up to standard eight. Having done his military service, Abre worked as a petrol attendant, then did loading work on trucks, and next found himself in Greyton, working in a hotel, where he met a woman, got engaged and had two kids, but the relationship didn’t last, and eventually neither did the job. That saw him end up at Somerset Mall in 1996, living in a nearby caravan park.

He started running in 1997 when he saw a newspaper advert for the Safari Half Marathon. “I entered and did no training, but I finished, got a medal, and was sore for a week!” He went on to run a number of marathons around the three-hour mark, including a PB 2:55 at the Cango Marathon, and then moved up to the ultras in 2002. His best Oceans time is 4:07:38, and his Comrades PB is 7:22:03, with a slowest time of 8:15: 26, so he is no slouch on the road!

Helping Hands

The incredible story behind Abre’s running exploits is that he has been helped by various people along the way, including Marius Claassen of Rola Motors sponsoring two of his trips, while his club has helped several times as well. However, having done 11 Comrades, Abre had decided that his Big C days were over, until recently… “A family I know saw me training and approached me, saying they want to pay for me to go run the 90^th Comrades, because it is going to be a special race, and they even want to go with me to support me. It really is incredible, and I am so grateful!”

“I can’t afford new shoes, so the mall sponsored a pair one year for Comrades, as did the Cape Town Market, and my Strand running club also bought me a pair one year. I often use old shoes that other runners no longer want, and just the other day a clubmate arrived at the mall with a brand new pair of the Comrades-branded New Balance shoes for me, because he said they don’t suit his feet. Now I am hiding them away for next year’s Comrades.”

Top pro multisporter Stuart Marais finished fourth in his first 70.3 Half Ironman at the beginning of this year in Buffalo City, then pulled off his first win on the European circuit and went on to qualify for the 70.3 World Champs, but was unfortunately unable to go compete. Now he has set his sights on getting to Australia for the next World Champs.

– BY SEAN FALCONER

With a successful first season of 70.3 racing behind him, Stuart reckons he has found his true triathlon niche, thanks largely to his running speed. “I don’t think the Half Iron is won or lost on the swim, and I usually come out in the second bunch, so I’ve been working really hard on the bike, because I believe the 70.3 is won by the most conserved biker, getting into the run fresher. I’ve changed my training dynamic to work towards that,” says Stuart. “I’m from a running background, and when I’m in form, there are very few guys who can run with me off the bike, so it is a great confidence-booster for me if I start the run amongst the top guys, because normally I can pull it through.”

Having raced 70.3s in SA, Europe and Malaysia, Stuart qualified for the 70.3 World Champs in Canada, but was forced to withdraw due to a fatigue problem, and says he‘d like to give it a ‘big knock’ again this coming season and get to the 2015 World Champs in Australia. “My 2015 season starts now in November, racing 70.3 Taiwan and a week later in Australia, so I’ll have two races under my belt before the year even gets going. Your five best races count and the top 50 guys qualify for World Champs, and that’s my main goal for 2015. Then in 2016 I want to be on the podium at World Champs!”

FAMILY MAN

Stuart (29) lives in Stellenbosch with wife Beth and their one-year-old son Luke, with second son Seth due to be born this November. There’s a cute story as to how Stuart met Beth: A few years ago, when he was working as a bike mechanic at the BMT shop in Stellies, she brought her bike in for a service. “I actually stole her name and number off the job card, then phoned her and said I’m the guy who wants to take you for a bike ride, and she said yes. She’s a good triathlete and actually did Half Ironmans before me, but she’s put racing on hold while pregnant.”

Very much a family man, Stuart says each year his little family heads up the coast to Knysna in July while his family from the Eastern Cape come from the opposite side to meet midway for the annual Oyster Festival. While there they take part in the now highly competitive Big 5 Challenge, which combines the running, biking, paddling and swimming events in the week-long festival, as well as the Totalsports XTERRA Knysna event (run & bike only), which Stu has won the past few years. Going in as defending Big 5 Champion, Stu won the Featherbed Nature Reserve Trail run to kick-start his title defence this year and never looked back, but had to bend the knee to Dan Hugo in the XTERRA.

“The Big 5 is getting bigger year on year, and I really enjoyed every event I took part in, although it was bittersweet not winning the XTERRA – but it is never bad losing to Dan, and he was superb in XTERRA this year. The whole week in Knysna is a real family getaway and we all take part – my 60-year-old dad is a fanatical runner and this year he also did the Big 5. We ran the half marathon on his birthday, so I called him up on stage during the Big 5 prize-giving and they gave him a standing ovation!”

FARMER TO BE

Looking ahead, Stu says he already has the next phase of his life planned once his competitive days are done. “I will join my dad on the family dairy farm in the Eastern Cape, but I’m really enjoying my sport for now and giving it a good tonk. I love my sport and I love farming, so I’m excited about both – but I’ll never leave the sport, I’ll always be involved in some way.”

When it comes to trail running in South Africa, one of the most consistent performers is Bernard Rukadza, a softly-spoken Zimbabwean who has lived in Cape Town since 2008 and lets his legs and feet do most of his talking.

Earlier this year, Bernard teamed up with top SA trailer AJ Calitz to win the three-day ProNutro AfricanX Trailrun, was on course to win the Jonkershoek Mountain Challenge until a sprained ankle cut his speed down and forced him to settle for second place, then claimed his fifth consecutive series win in the Spur Cape Winter Trail Series, followed by another win alongside
AJ in the three-day Southern Cross Trail Run. And these accolades were just the latest in a long line of wins and podium finishes he has wracked up since turning to trail running.

What makes his achievements so incredible is the fact that his training mostly consists of running 15km to work each morning and 15km back home again in the evenings, five days a week, in the company of fellow Zimbabwean Tsungai Mwanengeni, a top veteran runner in the Cape on both road and trail. They and their families live near to each other in Delft, near Cape Town Airport, and both work in Tyger Valley in the Northern Suburbs, so the ‘daily commute’ is the ideal time to get in their training.

“I know the other top guys are training more than me, because in the morning they may be doing two hours, and another two hours in the afternoon or evening, so if I want to be hanging with the lead bunch, then I need to do more to keep up with them in races,” says Bernard. “So every day we do 30km, and once, maybe twice a week we run to Tygerberg Nature Reserve or another nearby mountain first, to make it 25km for the run home and a total of 40km for the day. That is why we are not afraid to race long distances, because for us it is like a daily run
to work!”

ROAD TO TRAIL
Bernard (33) started running in school, but didn’t take it seriously until after school. His older brother is also an athlete, and Bernard saw that others were making a living from running, so he decided to give it a try himself, and then moved to SA to run professionally. His initial focus was on the road, but that changed in 2009. “Eddie Lambert of Team Contego introduced me to trail running in 2009, and it was just for fun, I didn’t take it too seriously. I was not even running with the right equipment, I was using road shoes, but then I started winning races, and I won the Winter Series for the first time in 2010, so I started taking it more seriously,” says Bernard. He was signed up as part of the Contego elite squad in 2010, which saw him kitted out with proper trail gear, courtesy of the team’s technical sponsor, New Balance, and he subsequently also picked up product sponsorships from Nativa and Racefood.

Bernard still competes on the road as well, running for RCS Gugulethu, and has a 2:24 marathon PB and 1:06 half marathon best. The longest he has done is the 56km Old Mutual Two Oceans, which he ran in 2010, “but it was too long and I didn’t have enough training for it. It seems pointless for me to run those long ones right now, because I cannot train enough to finish in the top 10. One day I want to be in the top 10 of the Two Oceans and other big marathons, like Gauteng Marathon, and I want to run Comrades when I am older and stronger, but for now I am focusing on trail. Next I want to run trail overseas, because some of the guys I started running with here in SA are now focused on running internationally. But mostly I just want to run, because running means life to me. When I’m running I am enjoying myself and I like running more than anything else.”

It’s been quite the season for 400m hurdler Cornel Fredericks, who clinched gold at the Commonwealth Games, African Champs and Continental Cup, and finished the prestigious IAAF Diamond League ranked third overall in his event. Now this humble athlete from the Overberg says it’s all about his desire to beat the best in the business.

MA: In 13 races this season, you’ve only once missed the podium. What stands out for you from your great year?

The Commonwealth Games was my big thing. Everything was new, but with the help of my coach Hennie Kotze and team, it made it easier to focus on my conditioning for track. The calibre of the field was strong, so I wanted to show everyone that I could perform at that level. On the morning of the final, I went into the warm-up area feeling one hundred percent, and I told Hennie that I wasn’t going to settle for anything less than gold, but when I went over the line, I didn’t know how to celebrate in the first five seconds! Another big moment was standing on that podium singing the national anthem, because that evening there were 70,000 people watching inside the stadium!

MA: Then you topped that off with more wins at the African Champs and Continental Cup. Did you feel any added pressure?

Definitely, but I was relaxed because I knew what I achieved in Glasgow and took that experience with me. The final was a close one, but I just came through with the win at the African Champs. Then in September, I represented Africa in my last race for the season at the Continental Cup. I became more focused as I went on in my season.

MA: This success must give you a lot of confidence about your chances at Rio 2016? Or are you more focused on immediate goals and races for now?

Next year’s World Champs in Beijing is the one to look to now. I’ve been to two World Championships – in 2011 I came fifth in the final, and last year I just missed it, coming ninth overall. My performances in 2014 showed that I can compete against the best and I have that desire to always finish on the podium. So for me to make a name for myself, I need to step it up and get a medal there. That’s what people remember.

MA: To what do you attribute your most recent success?

Every time I go home, I always take a few words from my parents. They told me to be fearless this season, and that’s how I went out in all my races. It’s a mental thing, too. After achieving podiums in a few races, that hunger grew. Going forward, it will be tough, because people expect more, but I’m up for any challenge. There is always pressure, but I have represented South Africa since 2005 at under-15 level, so that experience has helped me.

MA: Two of your former coaches have passed away in recent years. Has it spurred you on to perform for them, in their memory?

They have a special place in my heart. Mario Smit, who was killed in a car crash a few months ago, worked with me for four years in Stellenbosch. He was hard on me, but that’s the coaching I like. He motivated me to stand up against the big guys. My other coach, Bruce Longden from England, passed away a month before the Olympics in 2012. This year at the Commonwealth Games, as I was coming around the final bend, something Bruce told me came to mind, that I should stay tall and run as fast as I can.

MA: Is there somebody you really look up to in the sport?

My hero is Félix Sánchez of the Dominican Republic, who won two World Champs and Olympic golds. Now I’m competing against him! Off the track we’re good friends, and he always lends advice, but on the track I just want to beat him all the time, because I want to take over from him. Félix complimented me on my season and said I must look after myself and recover properly now, because I’m still young. To hear that from my role model is amazing!

MA: You seem to have found an extra gear this season. Any training secrets you can share with us?

It’s just hard work. I joined the High Performance Centre at Tuks in October 2012, moving from Stellenbosch, and it’s one of the best moves I’ve made. We have a good training group in Pretoria, with seven guys who have all competed on the world stage, so everyone motivates each other. We train at LC De Villiers in the off-season and we spend June to August in Europe for competitions. Our training is based on endurance work, but as the season goes on, we cut back and focus on speed sessions to sharpen before big competitions. I didn’t expect the success to happen so soon in my career, but I’m glad because I still have time to learn. I’m hungrier and want more medals.

MA: Is it good to be back in the country to recharge, or is it straight back to hard work?

I’m back to rest before starting up in the middle of October. I want to spend time with my family, who I don’t see during the year. They’re based in Caledon in the Overberg of the Cape, so catching up on news is going to be great. I will still be active, but nothing on the track – I will swim and cycle just to keep the body going. I don’t want to start from zero in October!

MA: You set your PB of 48.14 in 2011, and this year your best has been 48.25 when you won in Zurich in the IAAF Diamond League. Do you think you can you dip under 48 to become just the third South African to do so, and go after the SA record?

LJ Van Zyl broke Llewellyn Herbert’s 11-year-old SA record in 2011 with a 47.66. It will be tough, but I’m looking to break it in the future. Right now, I would like to improve my PB first and take it step by step. Hopefully one day when I have the perfect race, I can run under 48.

In June, after several years of turmoil, infighting, false starts, hirings and firings, court cases and intervention by national and international sporting bodies, Athletics South Africa appointed a new board under the leadership of President Aleck Skhosana, tasked with the job of getting the ship sailing in the right direction again – and the President believes that is exactly what is slowly but surely happening.

MA: We’ve seen our track and field athletes doing very well at the recent Commonwealth Games and African Champs, bringing home a number of medals and national records as well. You must be excited about this success, despite the past few years of turmoil at boardroom level?

It’s not only about me being excited, it’s about the country being excited, and our children who will come into the sport after this. Also, I am sure government is excited that ASA is doing what it is supposed to be doing. But we should give credit where it is due: Whilst there was turmoil in the sport, our coaches and athletes remained focused. They did not stop going to the track to train, or setting their targets, and the proof is in their results.

We sent 13 athletes to the Commonwealth Games and brought home nine medals, a national record. We said we wanted to reclaim our position as the powerhouse of African athletics at the African Senior Champs, and many people said it will take 10 years, but look, we won 19 medals, including 10 golds, with a squad of just 34 athletes, while Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria had squads of 60 to 70 each. We achieved what we set out to do, and the giant that is South African athletics, which had been sleeping, has been awoken.

MA: However, there was much criticism about the selection of the SA teams for these two meets, especially the middle-distance athletes being left out and total numbers cut by half to the African Champs, reportedly due to ASA being cash-strapped.

When we came in as the new board, I said that ASA would only work with people that know what they are doing, so we got in the most experienced coaches as selectors. They selected about 70 athletes that qualified for the African Championships, but there was not enough money to take all 70 athletes plus officials to Morocco – it was going to cost R2 million – so we requested the selectors to develop a new criteria that will speak to what we have. To cut the numbers down, they recommended that we select only those athletes ranked in the top three in Africa, and we were left with 35 athletes, but then there was an issue of no middle-distance athletes making the team. So we said let us first see how they perform at the Commonwealth Games, and fortunately Andre Olivier and Johan Cronje did very well in Glasgow, finishing third and fourth, so the selectors’ recommendation was to include them. It was transparent and based on current form.

MA: How is the current relationship between ASA and SASCOC, given that not very long ago SASCOC expelled ASA, which meant that our athletes could not be selected for World Games, nor receive Operation Excellence (OPEX) funding. Since then ASA has been reinstated, athletes went to the Commonwealth Games and Youth Olympics, but there were stories about athletes not being paid their full OPEX grants…

The relationship is good, our focus and targets are the same, to assist our athletes to shine where it matters most, at the Olympic Games. We have been meeting with SASCOC to plot the way forward, and SASCOC President, Mr Gideon Sam, even phoned from Glasgow to say, “Right, now we’ve got something to work with for 2016!” When we were elected, we said we are suspending all wars, external and internal, for the benefit of our athletes and coaches, and the integrity and image of the sport. We don’t have time to fight any more.

Now, I have not seen any complaints brought in by athletes that they have not been paid fully by SASCOC. In fact, we have said to SASCOC that we want to add more athletes to OPEX, but they said wait until after the Commonwealth Games, because we first need to set up new criteria and decide how many athletes we are taking for the 2016 plan, and there are also junior athletes coming through, like this young girl who won gold at the Youth Olympics, Gezelle Magerman. We have to think of all these young athletes, to prepare them for the World Junior Championships, and the different competitions around the world.

MA: When you were elected, you said that your key priorities are to fast-track development and transformation, and to restore the dented image of ASA. After four months in the job, do you think you are succeeding in this?

We came in with a two-year mandate to remove ASA from the bad news, and instead make the focus Cornel Fredericks winning three gold medals, or that young girl at the Youth Olympics. Now to fix a dent in a car takes some time, but to fix a dent in an image takes much longer, because people always remember the bad things. That said, the image of ASA in the continent is different to what you and I know… When we recently had the congress in Morocco, they said now Africa is back, because South Africa is back.

MA: Another of your earliest comments after election was that the sport needs business-minded people to run it, and that politicians are not good at doing that. In light of this, why has a CEO or business manager not yet been appointed?

The ASA Constitution is very clear: The staff are full-time, the President and Board are just volunteers. The position that I was appointed to is that of a politician in athletics, so there are things that I cannot do, which need to be done by an administrator. I have even refused to sign a new sponsorship deal, because I am not the CEO, and that sponsor is going to report to the office, not to me. We are talking about corporate governance and protocol, the Board must separate ourselves from the daily management. When you let politicians get into daily operations, things do not work.

So, we have appointed an interim manager in the office, Mr Pieter De Jager, since we do not have a CEO yet, and he is a technical person who understands the sport. This is because appointing a CEO is part of the challenges we still need to work through: Two former employees were employed as General Manager or CEO, one left last year, the other was suspended, and we have inherited those issues, so we have to study the contracts, and the CCMA, Labour Court and High Court rulings, so that when we do appoint a person, he or she will not be hit by a letter from the courts saying this job belongs to somebody else. We are first clearing the playing field, to ensure that when we do move, we move forward. Also, we don’t want a situation where the next Board takes over two years from now and says they don’t want the CEO we appointed, so we need to give our candidate an 18-month interim contract.

MA: Much has been said or written about the financial situation of the sport, largely centred on claims about financial mismanagement by previous employees or board members. Can you give us an update on the finances and tell us what plans are in place to improve the situation?

ASA was engulfed in a war with itself, and it went to the extent of the high courts. The remnants of that are still with us, and all we can do is manage that situation. The sport is slowly busy cleansing itself, which is making the investors and sponsors want to speak to us again – and they are calling us again, even some of those who moved away from the sport in the last few years, so we have even started the process of appointing a sponsorship and marketing agency to deal with these matters.

MA: On a related note, the last set of financial statements published on the ASA website are those of 2012. When will the 2013 financials be available?

The 2012 financial statements were actually not approved by council and the AGM, so we are dealing with that first, and then the 2013 figures will have to come as well. We only just recently commissioned auditors to audit the 2012 financials and take it to the correct platforms, because you can’t take a draft to government, or SASCOC or the IAAF. We have told everybody that we are coming in to clean up the mess, and we have to be mindful of due process.

MA: In attracting sponsors, one of the perceived limiting factors is the lack of TV coverage of athletics and road running. Are there any plans to extend TV coverage, and improve coverage, to grow the footprint of the sport?

ASA has a contract with the SABC giving the national broadcaster exclusive rights to broadcast athletics in this country, but that contract ends in December and we have already started negotiations with them to address the shortcomings of current coverage. I cannot divulge the details of these discussions as yet, but can say there is nothing to stop us from talking to other channels, to see where we are going to get the best value to package our product. Having said that, we can’t just blame the SABC, because ASA was in turmoil and the SABC was not always properly engaged, so there is very much room for improvement there as well.

MA: As a long-time ASA Board member, you undoubtedly came into the job with much knowledge of the situation, but after three months in the top position, have your perceptions of the job changed at all?

My perception then and now is the same. I’ve been part of athletics since 1981, and I’ve been involved at ASA for many years on various committees, so I knew exactly what would be the problems, and how these problems came about. That is why I said in our first Board meeting that we have to appoint a manager who is going to be in the office, who will account to us, because of what happened previously, the failure to separate the executive and non-executive capacities. We are also putting important structures back in place, like replacing the coaching, development, scientific, medical, doping and women’s committees, which had collapsed completely.

MA: Lastly, what is your long-term vision for the sport and how do you see us getting there?

I want to see athletics in this country taking its rightful place as it was in the 90s, when we were counted amongst the top countries in the world. I have been talking to various people around the world and they all see South Africa as a country with unlimited capability, and they all want to work with
our federation. What matters most is that our athletes must be given opportunity –
and that will separate those who are talented from those who are not, those who are disciplined, those who are hungry to go forward. Then the sky is the limit for South African athletics.