Sunday Tribune

Mamabolo’s 30-year record still intact

MATSHELANE MAMABOLO

IT says a lot about Titus Mamabolo’s massive talent that his world best marathon time has lasted three decades.

After all, such are the advancement in sport that records hardly last long. Running shoes these days are said to help athletes run a few seconds faster while the shorts and tops are designed to keep the sweat away from the body. No wonder PBS and records are commonplace.

But with all these improvements, the 2:19:29 that Mamabolo ran back in 1991 at the South African Marathon Championships at the age of 50 remains.

July 20 marked the 30th anniversary of that incredible run in Durban when Mamabolo improved on New Zealander Jack Foster’s nineyear-old mark of 2:20:28 and out here in Lebowakgomo near Polokwane in Limpopo, the man reflected on that day with glee. “I’m very happy that the record has stood for these 30 years. And judging by how the masters (runners aged 50 plus) are running now, I believe the record will stay for a further 30 years. It will outlive me.”

That famous smile which endeared him to road running enthusiasts the country over from when he became the first black man to become a national champion in 1974 now adorns his face

as he recalls that Saturday in Durban.

“I was able to run that time because I was prepared. I had trained for it,” he says. “So when they called me to say I’d made the Southern Transvaal team for the national championships in Durban, I asked the manager what was the world record for people my age.”

The manager curiously asked Mamabolo why he needed to know. “I told the manager I want to break it and she simply laughed at me and said I wouldn’t. But she, nevertheless, promised to find out for me what the record was.”

On the bus from Johannesburg’s Park Station to Durban, the manager gave Mamabolo a piece of paper with the world best time for masters on it.

“I was sitting next to Simon Ramphele, a senior (under 40 runner), and I told him I was going to break that record. I said to him as long as I can eat enough pap, that record will be gone.”

When they stopped at Harrismith, Mamabolo bought enough pap to have for lunch and dinner later on in Durban. “I knew I had trained well and I was so confident I was going to break that record, I asked the manager to tell the stadium announcer about my intentions. An announcement was made that I was running to break the world record. Most people didn’t believe I would.”

Mamabolo improving on Foster’s time by 59 seconds. “Simon had been running ahead of me all this time, but I caught up with him with about two kilometres to go and I told him ‘let’s go’. He ended up running his PB.”

“I remember that day in Durban. On the route we had a turn and we could see the leaders turning back and we were shouting and encouraging Titus when he was on his way to getting under 2:20. Titus was a gentleman, always ran with a smile,” Steve Holler recalls.

That smile was there when Mamabolo crossed the finish line for that world record. That record cemented Mamabolo’s status as a legend of South African running. Before that, he had blazed the trail for black athletes in 1974 when he became the first non-white national champion by beating record holder and champion Ewald Bonzet in the 5000m. That victory inspired many of the country’s golden generation of distance runners, such as the late Matthews Motshwarateu, Matthews Temane and Sydney Maree, as well as marathoners Thulani Sibisi and John Hamlett into taking up the sport seriously. Mamabolo followed that victory up with some sterling performances which saw him almost always making the South African teams for both track and cross country that toured Europe in the 1970s until he retired in 1976.

“He stayed away from the sport for a decade and returned to it in 1986 because “my wife said I was getting too fat”, he laughs.

His speed saw him dominating the veterans’ category and often beating the seniors in half marathons and marathons as well as ultras – particularly the now defunct City to City (Pretoria to Johannesburg) Marathon.

“I hold most of the veterans’ records in South Africa’s marathons,” he lights up. “You must check, Soweto, Two Oceans, Loskop and City to City.”

Though 80 years old now, Mamabolo hardly looks it and still jogs 10km in just under an hour almost daily.

SPORT

en-za

2021-08-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-08-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://sundaytribune.pressreader.com/article/281749862396308

African News Agency