OPINION: Onalenna Khonkhobe is a future Comrades champion

A couple of years ago I was watching the Comrades Marathon on TV with a friend, and when an athlete I had never heard of hit the front in the early stages, I stated with unbridled confidence that he wasn’t going to win.

Nobody can win Comrades without taking a conservative approach in the first half.

Around 60km into the race, with my friend questioning my credentials as a self-proclaimed road running analyst, I started backpedaling in an attempt to save face.

Fortunately for me, Onalenna Khonkhobe eventually bailed, and as the gold medal contenders reeled him in during the closing stages of the race, I looked less foolish.

Last year, Khonkhobe went on to win two of SA’s biggest races, the Two Oceans ultra-marathon and the Soweto Marathon.

Repeat performance

And last week there was a sense of deja vu when Khonkhobe again hit the front of the 90km Comrades Marathon in the early stages, opening a massive gap on the rest of the elite field.

This time, sitting in the media centre at the finish of the race, I again claimed that he had gone out too hard.

When he stopped shortly after the halfway mark and grabbed his right hamstring, that was it, I said. He was done. And this time I wasn’t chatting to a friend. I was surrounded by athletics reporters who all agreed.

Some 10 kilometres later, while Khonkhobe switched between walking and running, we all maintained our stance. It’s only a matter of time before he’s caught.

Another 10 kilometres down the road and we were all glancing at each other. Is he actually going to do this?

Every time he stopped or walked, we thought Khonkhobe would bail. But he kept going. And going. And going.

Incredible effort

He did ultimately drop out when he was caught with less than 20km to go, but as much as he was ridiculed for his approach by spectators, those of us in the media centre shared a common consensus: This dude is unbelievable.

Nobody should be able to hit the front at the start of Comrades, tear the road apart like a monster and hold on for that long.

Khonkhobe has proved his ability as an athlete in recent years, but Comrades is a different beast. As others have learned, you can’t win the race by hitting it head on. You have to be smart, controlled and patient. That’s the only way to do it.

But Khonkhobe’s ability to hang on after going out hard – which he has now done twice – has been astounding.

He’s remarkably tough, but he can’t keep treating Comrades like a sprint. If he gets his head together, approaches the gruelling race properly, and gives it a real go, it’s hard to imagine anyone beating him.

Khonkhobe is a Comrades champion.

All he has to do now is win the race… and one day he will.