Mokoka is still South Africa’s half marathon king
Stephen Mokoka is still South Africa's best half-marathon athlete after he successfully defended his South African title last week.
Pretoria’s star athlete, Stephen Mokoka, successfully defended his title last week and Cornelia Joubert secured gold in the women’s race at the ASA Half-Marathon Championships at the Nelson Mandela Bay in Port Elizabeth.
Mokoka, representing Gauteng North, outclassed a quality line-up in the men’s contest, covering the 21.1km distance in 1:01:21, with versatile track specialist Elroy Gelant (Central North West) earning second place in a close 1:01:30.
Precious Mashele finished third in the open race in 1:01:56. He was competing as an individual and was ineligible for championship medals, with bronze going to local Eastern Province star Melikhaya Frans, who finished fourth overall in 1:01:58.
Mashele and Frans both dipped under 1:02:00 for the first time in their careers.
“This year started very rough for me (due to injury), and this shows I’m getting better day by day. I didn’t expect that, so I’m very happy with the performance. The pace was good and I didn’t want to race too hard. I’m taking it easy in my build ups so that I don’t risk another injury at this time of the year,” Mokoka said after the race.
Gelant, who came second said it was a good race and he had aimed for a win on this one, but nevertheless congratulated the winner.
In the women’s division, Cornelia Joubert from Randfontein in the West Rand was promoted to first place overall after Ethiopian athletes Genet Abdurkadi (1:11:45) and Elisabeth Arsedo (1:12:20) were disqualified for race number violations.
Joubert crossed the line in 1:12:31, while compatriot Mapaseka Makhanya earned the silver medal in 1:12:43, improving the Personal Best of 1:14:06 she clocked to bag bronze at last year’s race.
Diana-Lebo Phalula, who was sixth overall, took third place in the national championships in 1:14:25 to wrap up a Central Gauteng clean sweep of the podium.
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