National record holder Hendrick Ramaala is giving the race a miss with his focus on a standard marathon later in the year, defending champion Stephen Mokoka's season has been thrown into disarray, and versatile distance runner Rene Kalmer has her sights set on the track.
Mokoka hoped to run the 10 000m race at the African Athletics Championships which start in Nairobi next week, but his preparations were wasted after Athletics South Africa (ASA) changed their qualifying criteria in April.
Having secured a remarkable 1 500m/10 000m double at the national track and field championships this season, Mokoka said on Thursday he was unaware he had to re-qualify during a window period in July, and has been left to pick up the pieces after he was omitted from the final team.
The 25-year-old defended his national 21km title in Port Elizabeth a year ago in a personal best of 1:01.27, and went on to place a respectable eighth at the World Half-marathon Championships in Birmingham last October.
"I was supposed to run on the track in Nairobi, so I've been working on my speed and I'm not prepared for a half-marathon," Mokoka said.
"I really wanted to run at the African Championships and I'm disappointed but it wasn't meant to be."
Ramaala has enjoyed an unusually relaxed season, with no World Championships or Olympics on this year's schedule, and will only race again in preparation for a major city marathon, most likely in the United States, in October or November.
The 38-year-old, who set the 1:00:07 national record in Slovakia in 1997, and picked up silver medals at the global half-marathon championships in 1998 and 1999, was fifth at last year's national championships in a fast race which saw nine men break the 62-minute barrier.
"This is a quiet year without the major international championships, so it's a good one to take a bit of a break," Ramaala said.
"I'll make a decision about my next race within a month, and then I'll start preparing for an autumn marathon overseas."
Kalmer, who led the South African women's team home in 15th place at the global 21km championships last year, has been in fine form on the track this season. She was set to line up in a 3 000m race at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco on Thursday night as part of her final preparations for the continental track and field championships.
"I'm not running the PE half-marathon this weekend because I'm focusing on shorter events at the moment, but I might do the SA 10km Championships next month," she said.
In Kalmer's absence, Annerien van Schalkwyk will be confident of defending the title she won last year in a career best 1:12.13, but will have her hands full against the likes of Kalmer's younger sister, Christine, as well as Irvette van Blerk and Mpho Mabuza.
With Mokoka out of the reckoning, a new men's champion will be crowned.
Lindikhaya Mthangayi, who was second last year in 1:01.32, will line up as favourite against a field packed with talented youngsters looking to take advantage of the absence of the veterans.
ShareThis