Picture: North West athlete, Stephen Mokoka came second at Sanlam Cape Town marathon/Facebook

By OBAKENG MAJE

The defending champion of the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, Stephen Mokoka (38) was unlucky to come second during the 2023 Sanlam Cape Town marathon yesterday. The award-winning athlete who was born and bred in Ramatlabama village, outside Mahikeng took home a silver medal.

Mokoka was only four seconds behind the winner, Ethiopian, Adane Kebede Gebre and crossed the finish line in 2:11:30. Gebre finished the race at 2:11:26 mark, while the third position was secured by the Kenyan athlete, Benard Kipkorir with 2:11:48.

Mokoka who won the race for the third time last year said then: “I want to thank my sponsors such as Boxers, Nike and Athletic Club and people who have been supporting me throughout. I have won the Cape Town marathon for the third time and it was good that it happened in the country.

“There were individuals including runners from Gauteng and North West, who came here to support me. It was the toughest race and I actually wanted to run a little bit quicker compared to how I ran.”

Mokoka further said runners from Gauteng and North West, are privileged to be running in areas with high altitudes because when they run in areas that are below the sea level their lungs get the time to breathe.

According to Wikipedia, Mokoka is a South African long-distance runner, who competes in races ranging from 3000 metres to 50km distance. He formerly held the 50km world record and is a four-time medalist at the Universiade.

Mokoka has also represented South Africa internationally in road, cross-country, and track events. He represented South Africa in the marathon at the 2012 London Olympics.

“Mokoka began competing internationally in 2005 and came ninth over 10,000 metres at the 2005 Summer Universiade. At the African student championships in 2006, he was third over 5000 metres and finished as runner-up in the 10,000 m. He won back-to-back South African universities titles (2006/2007) and won his first global-level medal at the 2007 Summer Universiade, taking the bronze medal in the 10,000m.

“He gained his first senior international selections the following year, running at the 2008 IAAF World Cross Country Championships and the 2008 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships.”

Wikipedia added that, Mokoka made significant improvements to his times in the 2009 season, including a 5000 m personal best of 13:44.22 min at the Yellow Pages Durban meeting and a 10,000 m track best of 28:48.73 min. It says, he won the 10,000 m national title in March and then managed to finish in 32nd place at the 2009 IAAF World Cross Country Championships.

“He also improved on the roads, taking the national 10K and half marathon titles with bests of 28:21 min and 61:26 min, respectively. Having already won the Two Oceans Half Marathon earlier that year, he established himself as a top-level competitor at the 2009 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships by coming in eighth place.

“At the 10-mile Great South Run in England, it came down to a sprint finish between Mo Farah and himself. Although he lost by a margin of one second, he set a South African record of 46:26 min for the distance.”

Wikipedia says in 2010, Mokoka retained his 10,000m track and road national titles and improved upon his previous year’s finish at the 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, coming 22nd overall. It says he made his first outing over the marathon distance in November of that year, running a time of 2:08:33 hours for fourth place at the JoongAng Seoul Marathon.

taungdailynews@gmail.com