When they talk about a scenic race with a stunning view, they normally don’t mean running straight up a skyscraper, but if it’s a view you’re after, then the Ponte Challenge is well worth the climb. It may not be specifically running-related, but it is an interesting fitness challenge, and in a quite iconic location in Joburg, for good measure. – By Juliana Ambrosi with Sean Falconer
They say that if at first you don’t succeed, try and try again until you do. Well, Eugene Lekay must have that advice imprinted on his psyche, because the man who has started the Comrades Marathon 21 times in the last 25 years finally earned his 10th medal in 2023 and claimed his Comrades race number 17696 in perpetuity. This is his story of a quarter of a century journey to a Green Number, with numerous challenges along the way, but also a testament to one runner’s determination to achieve his goal. – By Sean Falconer
The 2023 World Athletics Championships took place in Budapest, Hungary in the last week of August, and what an incredible meet it turned out to be! We saw nine days of World Records, Championship Records, Area Records, National Records, season bests and personal bests, watched enthralling competitions and incredible moments of sporting camaraderie, and basked in what was one of the best World Champs meets of all time. (OK, it wasn’t so good from a South African perspective, but that aside, it was a great meet.) Modern Athlete had two reporters at the event, courtesy of PUMA South Africa, doing daily coverage and interviews, and now it’s time for a look back at some of the highlights of wonderful week of athletics action. – By Sean Falconer & World Athletics
With two more wins in the 2023 SPAR Grand Prix Series in Durban and Mbombela, two-time defending series champion Tadu Nare is well on course to make it three series wins in a row.
The Absa RUN YOUR CITY DURBAN 10K has already produced the fastest time ever run on South African soil, and this year’s frontrunners delivered another scintillating race. – By Sean Falconer and Jacky McClean
South Africa’s men’s marathon team of Melikhaya Frans, Simon Sibeko and Tumelo Motlagale were the nation’s only athletes in action on the last day of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest on Sunday. Hopes were high that they could do well, after Frans finished 18th with a fast PB at the last World Championships in Oregon, but the Budapest heat took its toll on the trio.
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Motlagale was the fastest on the day, finishing in 51st place in 2:22:14, with Sibeko the last runner to cross the finish in 60th in 2:31:59. Frans decided to withdraw from the race after 30km, and was one of a total of 23 athletes that failed to finish in the scorching conditions.
After the race, which was won by Uganda’s Victor Kiplangat in 2:08:53, Motlagale explained: “The conditions were very brutal, but we had to get to the end and finish the race. I started feeling [the heat] after 25km. It was pretty good at the start of the race, but after the 25 mark, that’s when it started to rise and we started feeling the heat.”
Speaking about the fact that the South Africans all ran their own races rather than working as a team, Motlagale added: “We did have a team talk towards the beginning of the race, but sometimes the race just unfolds [differently]… We don’t really train together, so during the race, the plan starts to scatter around, and everybody decides to go on their own plan. If we were together maybe two months or three months before, maybe the race plan could have been a bit different and we could have run as a team.”
After dropping out of the race around the 30km mark, Frans said: “It was so tough for me. The first 5km my body didn’t respond very well. I didn’t know what was happening, but I tried my best and I said to myself, no, I want to go to the finishing line.”
“After 30km my body was giving up and I told myself, this is enough, I can’t suffer… Let me not finish it, because I was really struggling. I wanted to finish the race, but I saw I was not running, I was walking. It’s like my inside was running, but my outside body was not running. Then I said, no, let me not finish it, because my body is not feeling well.”
With no South Africans competing in the final session on Sunday night, it meant the team finished a third consecutive World Athletics Championships with no medals. However, local fans of the sport were still treated to another scintillating day’s action, culminating with the Dutch taking a fantastic come-from-behind win in the women’s 4x400m relay, with Femke Bol going from a distant third to narrow first in a home straight sprint for the line as she anchored her team home. Jamaica had to settle for the silver medal, with the British team taking bronze.
This came after Bol had fallen just short of the line in the mixed 4x400m relay in the opening days of the World Champs, and lost the baton in the process, thus going from sprinting for the gold medal to not officially finishing the race. However, she bounced back strongly to take the gold medal in the 400m hurdles race, then claimed a second gold with the relay team, and her sheer joy after the last race of the meet seemed a fitting way to wrap up an incredible week’s action.
Our team on the ground at Budapest have been interviewing all South African athletes after their respective events. To get an inside view on their thoughts about their performances and the World Champs experience, click the button below!
South Africa’s last shot at a medal on the track at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest went up in smoke as the men’s 4x100m relay team failed to complete their race in the showpiece final on Saturday night. There was a distinct sense of déjà vu, as a similar dropped baton scenario as the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 played out on the back stretch of the track.
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This time it was the second changeover between Benjamin Richardson and Clarence Munyai that proved to be the problem, as Akani Simbine stood waiting on the home straight for the baton that never arrived. Explaining what happened, Munyai said: “It’s not nice obviously because we did quite well yesterday [in the heats], and coming into today, we were looking forward to competing.”
“Obviously, it’s my mistake, because I’m the senior guy and the change wasn’t good – he missed my hand, as my hand was moving. I was looking forward, so I didn’t see at the back, but I take the blame, it’s one of those things where it happens in sport, but you just have to bounce back and hopefully the next one we can put it together.”
Both the men’s and women’s 4x100m relay titles were won by the USA, with Noah Lyles anchoring the US men home and claiming a third gold medal to go with his winning efforts in the 100m and 200m finals. In the women’s team, Sha’Carrie Richardson added a second gold to her haul, having won the 100m and finished third in the 200m.
Earlier in the day, Irvette van Zyl “survived” the blisteringly hot conditions to finish the marathon in her first World Championship appearance. She crossed the line in 2:38:32, thus securing 45th place out of 77 starters. Having failed to finish two Olympic marathons and not even making the start of the third that she was supposed to compete in because of injury, just reaching the finish in Budapest was Van Zyl’s main mission on Saturday.
“It was just proving to myself today that I can,” she said after the race, which was won by Ethiopia’s Amane Beriso in 2:24:23. “I knew I wasn’t in the shape I wanted to be, but I just wanted to show to myself if I pitch up injury-free, I can cross the finish line. It was a bit of torture on the route, but I really enjoyed it. It’s a beautiful route, and overall I’m really pleased… I don’t think I had a plan today apart from survive and finish.”
Ischke Senekal’s best second-round throw of 16.20m in qualification was not enough to see her through to the women’s shot put final after finishing 32nd overall.
Without a doubt, one of the highlights of the day’s action was Mondo Duplantis winning the men’s pole vault, retaining the World Champs title he won in 2022 in the USA. He is thus still the reigning Olympic, World and World Indoor Champion. Having won the competition on the night in Budapest with a winning height of 6.10m, he asked the officials to push the bar up to 6.23m, so that he could try to improve his own World Record. His next three jumps saw him come very close to rewriting the record books yet again, but for now his World Outdoor Record of 6:21m and his World Indoor Record of 6.22m remain the highest marks jumped to date.
Our team on the ground at Budapest have been interviewing all South African athletes after their respective events. To get an inside view on their thoughts about their performances and the World Champs experience, click the button below!
South Africa’s 4x100m relay team ensured Akani Simbine will have another shot at a medal at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest after being disqualified from his 100m semifinal. The quartet of Shaun Maswanganyi, Benjamin Richardson, Clarence Munyai, and Simbine produced a slick performance to finish second in their heat in 37.72 and book a place in Saturday night’s final.
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Speaking afterwards, Simbine said: “It was good. It feels good to run, it feels good to race, it feels good to be able to be on the track again… I’m happy, happy for the guys, happy for the team, and excited for tomorrow.”
This was Munyai’s first performance at these World Championships, having skipped the individual events. The SA 200m record holder said afterwards: “I was quite excited to be honest because they’ve been running and I also wanted to get out there and come compete. For me it was more excitement than nerves so I’m quite happy.
“We did quite well as a team, we executed and we all ran our legs quite well. We came out here and we wanted to qualify for the final and put a solid time out there… It was good [baton] changes throughout and as a team we trusted each other and I think we did a good job.”
There was disappointment for Prudence Sekgodiso later in the evening in the 800m semifinals. The 21-year-old looked to be in the perfect position to make a move, but around the 450m mark, she clipped the heels of the runner in front of her and fell to the track and out of contention. She nevertheless managed to pick herself up and finish the race.
In the women’s javelin final, Jo-Ané fell short of her own expectation, her best on the night was a third-round throw of 57.43m to finish in 10th place.
“For me, it was just amazing to be in the final. It was great, it was really what I planned to come and do here but I’m a little disappointed with how I performed. I think there’s a lot more that I could have done but on the day I didn’t do what I could. I had a little problem with my rhythm in the first and second throws so it just wasn’t my day today but it was a great competition and always good to get the experience of being on the world stage.”
Earlier in the day, fellow javelin thrower Douw Smit’s best effort was 75.03m in qualification was not enough to see him through to the final.
Our team on the ground at Budapest have been interviewing all South African athletes after their respective events. To get an inside view into strategy and their thoughts on their performances, click the button below to see for yourself what it takes to compete on a world stage!
Clarence Munyai is the SA Record-holder in the 200m, but after showing good form in the 100m in recent months, he will be racing at these World Champs as part of the Team SA men’s 4x100m relay team on Friday. We caught up with him for a quick Q&A a few days before he left for Budapest.
In 2018, Clarence Munyai lit up the South African Championships in Pretoria when he clocked a scintillating 19.69 in the 200m final to not only claim the national title, but also set a new national record. In subsequent years, the closest he could get to posting another sub-20 was his 20.04 in 2019, mainly because a series of niggly injuries kept derailing his progress, but he remained one of the top sprinters in SA.
Having competed at the Olympics in 2016 and 2021 and the Commonwealth Games in 2018, as well as the World Champs in 2017, 2019 and 2022, and the World Relay Champs in 2021, Munyai he has been a regular member of Team SA at global competition level. He has also enjoyed some success at that level, helping SA win the 4x100m gold medal at those World Relay Champs (later rescinded due to Thando Dlodlo’s positive doping test), to go with the African Under-20 title in the 200m in 2017 and a bronze medal in the 200m at the 2022 African Champs. He was also fourth in the 200m at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
He nearly made it into the 200m at these World Champs, thanks to posting a qualifying mark of 20.22 in July, but as the fourth-fastest SA sprinter over the 200m distance, he narrowly missed selection. (Countries may only send a maximum of three qualifying athletes per event to the World Champs.) However, his great form over the 100m in the past year, which included him beating his previous best time, set in 2018, saw him once again selected to be a part of the SA 4x100m team, where he is now one of the elder statesmen of the team, in spite of just being 25.
Q. After that incredible SA Record in the 200m in 2018, it feels like you’ve really been unlucky with injuries, often just as you seem to be hitting top form again. Sorry to ask such a tough question right up front, but how are you feeling going into these World Champs, is the body holding up?
A. The body is holding up well, and we’ve been working really hard with my team to try and cut down injuries and get the body strong, so we don’t get Injured. Staying healthy and injury free is what brings the big performances.
Q. You ran a PB 10:04 last year in the 100m, so what are your hopes and expectations for the World Champs this year?
A. Running that 10.04 has really motivated me, as I have always been a 200m athlete, and that just shows me I can do great things in both the 100m and 200m. Competing at the World Champs is always about executing what we have been working on with the coach throughout training and races, and just putting everything together when it matters.
Q. You nearly made it into the 200m at these World Champs, but instead will be just part of the 4x100m relay team, whereas last year in Oregon you raced the 100m and 4x100m. Do you think this will help you, perhaps by placing less stress on your body with differing racing distances and more races?
A. I only have the 4x100m relay to focus on and it’s just two races, so I think my body will handle it well.
Q. Unfortunately, you and Shawn Maswanganyi ran into some issues with the baton handover at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Does that motivate you even more to chase a smooth relay run in Budapest?
A. In Tokyo, Shaun and I dropped the baton during our exchange and afterwards we had a look at our race and we’ve been working hard to rectify the mistake and change-over. We are really motivated to go out and compete, because we have a really strong 4x100m relay squad, and we want to put it together and do well at World Champs, as it will be a stepping stone to Paris next year.
Q. Similarly, after the high of winning the gold medal at the World Relay Champs in Poland in early 2021, then seeing it taken away, Team SA bounced back to make the final and finish sixth at the 2022 World Champs in Oregon. This points to the team having serious big match temperament, so do you and the guys feel ready to tackle another charge to a final and then chase a medal?
A. We are really motivated as a team to go and perform. In previous years, we had some setbacks, but we know that we are capable of getting a medal. All the athletes are confident and know we can build on last year’s sixth place and get a better position this year.
Q. In a recent interview with Team South Africa, Sinesipho Dambile lists you as a mentor. How important is it to you to share your experience with the young sprinting talent in South Africa?
A. It’s always important to try and help the next generation of athletes, because we have so much talent in South Africa, and one day we will have many Gold medal contenders. Being able to help them with what I have learnt and seeing them perform brings joy to me.
Q. Finally, what is your secret to getting faster?
A. The secret is being disciplined as an athlete to do the things we don’t like or are not good at, because those are the things that will help improve performance. Another of the important things to getting faster is self-belief.
Modern Athlete’s coverage of the World Athletics Championships is brought to you by PUMA.
(Image: Courtesy PUMA South Africa)
Wayde van Niekerk showed much promise in the build-up to the World Athletics Championships in Budapest but couldn’t replicate that speed he produced in the last few months when he took to the track for the 400m final on Thursday.
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After just scraping into the final, the world record holder finished in last place in a disappointing 45.11 seconds as Jamaica’s Antonio Watson stormed to gold.
“I ran bad, I ran terrible, we all saw that. The run was well off, I mean I’m a 44 [second] athlete from the get-go of the season so I was wrong, I did not execute my race right. Things didn’t go my way and I’m still processing it all but it was definitely bad,” he said afterward.
Meanwhile, all three of South Africa’s 200m semifinalists missed out on places in Friday night’s final. After an unsettling delay because of a bizarre collision of the golf carts transporting the athletes to the track, Sinesipho Dambile finished fourth in his race in 20.28, Shaun Maswanganyi was seventh in his race in 20.65 and Luxolo Adams was sixth in 20.44.
Despite running a personal best time, Dambile was disappointed with his performance. “I expected much better but I couldn’t get it together. I hope the next race I’m better, but I don’t know, I’m a bit disappointed,” he said afterward.
Adams explained that he had felt dizzy after the golf cart incident and had been rattled by the delay in his race which was switched from first to last of the semifinals. “But I have no room for excuses to come here and tell you guys that, no this happened or whatever. Regardless of what happens, I have to go out there and fight.”
In the morning, the ever-green Wayne Snyman finished 21st in the 35km race walk in a time of 2:35:13.
Having returned from retirement, the 38-year-old said he had only 12 weeks of training for the event.
“Unfortunately, I think I lacked a little bit of training. I would have liked four to six weeks more but it was good. I didn’t stop to pour water on myself this time so that’s good. I’m happy with the race.
“I’m going to have to really sit back and decide why I want to do another Olympics. I have it in my legs, I showed it here – 12 weeks of training and [almost] top-20 – I think that’s really good. Ask me again in a little while. Maybe after I retire I’ll come back again.”
Our team on the ground at Budapest have been interviewing all South African athletes after their respective events. To get an inside view into strategy and their thoughts on their performances, click the button below to see for yourself what it takes to compete on a world stage!