An up-and-coming running star who had set his sights on finishing in the top 10 in the Comrades Marathon, ended up being beaten on the roadside by a mysterious sjambok-wielding “madman”.

Onlookers were outraged at the unprovoked, painful attack on Mthandazo Qhina, 34, near the on-ramp to the N3 in Sherwood, just a few kilometres from the finish line in Durban.

They watched astounded as an unknown “demented” man wandered unchecked into the middle of the road, swearing and mumbling to himself, before whacking the runner on his backside with a sjambok. Qhina was felled by the attack, and the scruffily-dressed man disappeared into nearby bushes.

Although he passed Cowies Hill in 10th position, some race experts felt that the attack in the final stages was not responsible for keeping Qhina out of the coveted top 10 gold medals. Witnesses to the attack disagreed and Qhina’s mentor and friend, Henning Ludeke, said from Cape Town on Tuesday that the assault could well have cost him a spot in the top 30 positions.

“It did have a negative effect for sure,” Ludeke said. “Mthansdazo was already cramping, which was slowing him down, but if he had not fallen, he could have taken half-an-hour to reach the finish line instead of an hour.”

Qhina, who hails from Qunu in the Eastern Cape – where former president Nelson Mandela has a home – and who now lives in Cape Town, had to settle for 68th place. Although he was competing in his first Comrades, he boasts an impressive record and had every reason to believe he would do well.

A member of the Nedbank Running Club in Cape Town, Qhina won the Peninsula Marathon in February, with one observer commenting that he “took off from the gun like a scalded cat” and then crossed the line more than seven minutes ahead of the runner-up.

Qhina also came sixth in this year’s prestigious 56km Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon.

And right until the final stages of the Comrades he was doing well, being placed 22nd at Drummond, the half-way point, and 10th at Cowies Hill with 18km to go.

Then he began to suffer from cramping and slowed down at Sherwood, where unbeknown to him, the “demented” man was wandering in the road.

Suddenly, the man wielded his sjambok, downing the professional runner.

“There were about 30 or so burly men on the side of the road braaiing and no one stopped this man on the road,” said an angry witness Trudy Andrews, who alerted the Daily News to the incident.

The crowd began shouting at the attacker, Qhina said on Tuesday through his friend Ludeke.

“There were a lot of witnesses,” he said, adding that he received “quite a hard hit”.

Qhina told Nick Bester, the national manager of Nedbank running clubs, he had thought the man hit him because he was disappointed to see him walking.

Andrews was upset that Qhina’s race had been spoiled, saying that at that point, he was a front runner and lying about 14th or 15th.

“I was angry and absolutely horrified. I know how much preparation goes into getting ready for the race,” she said on Tuesday night. “This was a very fit man and I reckon he could have made it (back) into the top 10. He held his backside when he was attacked. He must have been in total shock.”

About 20 runners overtook him while people tried to see if he was all right, Andrews said. “He seemed devastated that after doing so well, people were overtaking him.”

No one knew who the madman was, but she understood that he was often spotted in the area. Her grandson, Shaun Ferns, took photographs of the collapsed runner and the Daily News tracked him down from a partial number on his vest.

Ludeke said

Qhina had not complained to anyone as he was a shy person. The incident had not de-motivated his friend at all and at this stage, Qhina planned to have another attempt next year.

Gary Boshoff, the general manager of the Comrades Marathon, said this was an isolated incident and despite security, there was no way of predicting that a madman would cause a disturbance.

“The reason the runner fell out of the race was that he was cramping, nothing else,” Boshoff said.

“He could not go any further at the same pace.” – Daily News