Cross country event accentuates SA's weakness

The beginning. . . cross country running is the cornerstone of athletics careers for Kenyan runners.


Last week my spirits were very low due to unpleasant personal circumstances, which included lack of opportunity to travel to the African Cross Country Championships in Cape Town. The championships took place on Sunday, and my interest in the event was to gauge South Africa’s current standing in terms of international competition in athletics.

Cross country running is the cornerstone of Kenya’s dominance in middle distance running. Even its athletes for the much shorter 800m track event must first show their mettle in cross country. Apart from providing the kind of terrain most African athletes are naturally familiar with – grassy and uneven fields, hills, rocky and muddy patches here and there – cross country running instills a winning culture without the benefit of fancy resources. (In many cases runners compete barefooted.)

During isolation and the few years after admittance to international sport, South African athletics also relied in cross country to produce new talent with potential to be world contenders. The local cross country schedule attracted a horde of hungry athletes those days, many of whom entering for fun only to find out along the way that they had real talent for athletics.

I saw Hendrick Ramaala for the first time during such events. He admits he knew nothing about his running talent until he participated in cross country events, for fun. It is stuff of fairy tales now that Ramaala is heading for his fifth Olympic Games this year – a milestone of legendary proportions. By then he was already in university, after arriving in Johannesburg from – ironically –  the countryside in Limpopo province.

Another SA legend Elana Meyer cites her 6^th finish at the 1996 world cross country championships as one of career highlights. But 10 years earlier, Zola Budd had won the world crown in cross country in 1985 and 1986. Budd was running for the UK at the time, after that country offered her a passport.

Before Meyer and Ramaala during his formative years in athletics, there were many household names who first pounded the earth in cross country. The juniors I saw coming through the ranks over a decade ago, included the likes of John Morapedi, George Mofokeng, Jeffery Gwebu, Rene Kalmer, Azwinndini Lukhwareni,  Richard Mavuso, Dimakatso Morobi, Sarah-Jane Khumalo, Norman Dlomo just to name a few. Most went on to have successful senior careers in track and road running before disappearing from the radar, while Kalmer’s star continues shines brightest.

I don’t know  what happened to Mofokeng but his friend Gwebu made a dramatic return at the Soweto Marathon last year, taking second place in the 10km run. Also back in contention, after a doping ban, is Lukhwareni, who finished a credible third in the SA marathon championship in George early February.

My point in recalling the names above is to drive home the point that SA athletics needs a healthy cross cross environment to revive its dwindled fortunes. This is the point Ramaala has been punting over the years, as have other development experts. Mpho Mabuza, the best senior South African woman home in the  African champs in Cape Town, added a chilly dimension in the same lines. After finishing way back 17^th, an exasperated Mabuza said: “We do not go on camps and train together for long periods as teams.

“That’s what Kenya is doing and the results are there to see. We are far too individual, whereas they know each other very well.”

For the record, Kenya won three of the four categories at the cross country championships, losing only the men’s junior title to Ethiopia. This was in spite of the Kenyans Japhet Korir (defending champ) and Justine Cheruiyot  crossing the line together with Muktar Awel of Ethiopia. But the officials gave it to the Ethiopian, with Korir taking silver.

In the same category, the first South African home, Tumisang Monnatlala, was far back at No. 25. The picture for the host nation was similarly gloomy in the junior women as the five SA entrants Luleka Dyonki,  Sylvia Tshetlanyane and Thandi Sithole finishing 22^nd, 23^rd  and 24th respectively, while Thandeka Manzana 26^th  and the Van Graan sisters Aynslee and Kyla finished 28th and 31st to close an account of low returns for South Africa.

The best performing SA overall was senior men’s Lungisa Mdadelwa who finished the 12km run at No. 12, in 37:29. The winner was Kenyan Clement Langat (35:43). Kenya also won all team categories, and their closest competitors wre fellow east Africans Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Kenyan had only sent one defending champion from last year, Korir for the 8km junior men race. The champions for the other categories have most probably moved on to other things, to make space for a new round of fresh talent. We are going to have to work hard to match that. In the mean time the powers that be must move mountains to make cross country running a mass participation sport again in South Africa.

At first class level, a lot can still be done between now and September 15 when the SA championships will be held in Durban. God-willing, I should be there to assess the state of affairs.
 Without a competitive cross country circuit, it will be a miracle if we produced track and road running talent of world standards again.