Elroy Gelant’s fantastic running season continued unabated on Sunday as he won a second national marathon title courtesy of victory at the Durban International Marathon incorporating the Athletics South Africa (ASA) Marathon Championships.
Running in the colours of Athletics Central North West, Gelant narrowly missed out on the automatic Olympic qualification time of 2:08:10 but still clocked an impressive 2:09:32 to set a new course record.
National champion back in 2019, Gelant has now added his name to an exclusive list of five runners – the late Zithulele Sinqe, Willie Motlo, Frank Pooe, Benedict Moeng and Coolboy Ngamole - to have won the title on two occasions.
The 37-year-old Boxer Athletic Club star achieves this milestone on the back of having run PBs in the 10km and marathon since the start of the year, proving that - like the good old wines from his hometown in George - he gets better with age.
Gelants shows his class
The multiple Olympian – he has represented South Africa at the Games in track and on the road – beat off a determined Matthews Leeto, who made a telling surge at the 35km mark to break off the bunch and whittle it down to just four protagonists, into second place. The North West Athletics star ran a massive PB of 2:09:47, a huge improvement on his previous fastest marathon of just over 2:14.
Stephen Mokoka was third overall in 2:09:52 while Namibia’s Thomas Reinhold finished fourth with a 2:10:10.
Gelant had started somewhat cautiously and - along with the two other podium finishers – appeared to have been left behind by the 10km mark when pace-maker Gladwin Mzazi pulled away the lead bunch comprising mainly of international runners with none of the SA Championships contenders in sight. But they caught up after the 15km mark from whence it became a wait and see game.
Mzazi pulled off just before the 20km mark having done his one-hour pacing duties to help the group cross the halfway mark in under 64 minutes and within the record pace.
Reinhold took over and pushed the pace with the trio as well as Gelant’s provincial teammate Tumelo Motlagale in the mix. But Motlagale, national champion two years ago, struggled to keep up with the pace and was dropped off, together with pre-race favourite Bernard Ritoech of Kenya just before the 30km mark.
Decisive move
Leeto, aware of both Gelant and Mokoka’s finishing speed, made a surge at 35km and looked like he could be on his way to a glorious success over his more revered adversaries. But wily old Gelant reeled him in and looked assured of victory once he sped past the youngster. The only question was whether he could dip under the Olympic qualifying standard to earn his place alongside Mokoka in the South African marathon team for Paris 2024 just as he was for Tokyo 2020.
At some point it looked like he would, but he slowed down for the 40th kilometre to end up finishing just outside the requisite 2:08:10. He could still go to Paris on rankings though, and he was occupying the final 80th position in the rankings before the Hamburg Marathon that also took place on Sunday morning.
That bitterness of failure to run the automatic qualification time would no doubt have been sweetened by the R75 000 winners’ purse as well as the extra bucks he will earn for breaking the course record.
With third-placed Mokoka not partaking in the national championships, Motlagale moved into that bronze medal spot with his 2:12:47 while Gauteng North’s Reghen Magwai was fourth with a 2:14:29 PB. Defending champion Simon Sibeko of Eastern Province finished seventh in 2:17:52.