George Mofokeng made his come back into the top class, when he took the tape in Nedbank Cape Town City event to record a time 2:14:20 seconds.Early leader Odwa Tunyiswa used the ideal racing conditions to pull a large bunch through the first 10km in 32 minutes 27 minutes. The sustained pace saw the pack whittled down to six including Tunyiswa, George Mofokeng, Mike Fokoroni, and David Ngakane by half way which they completed in 1:08.
At this stage the defending Champion Motlokoa Nkhabutlane and his Lesotho colleagues remained in the chasing pack.
As the pace eased Mofokeng and Zongamele Dyubeni, a training partner of Hendrick Ramaala, put in a series of surges to break free as the race headed back towards the Salt River circle.
Sensing an opportunity to take the race by the scruff of the neck, Mofokeng prized free on the way through the City centre and opened a lead of 200 metres over Dyubeni as he went through the Waterfront.
Nkhabutlane initiated his typical late charge from 31 kilometres putting Mofokeng’s one and a half minutes under pressure from the hard chasing Lesotho athlete.
Fokoroni, who had caught Dyubeni with five kilometres left, was unable to hold off the rampaging Nkgabutlane who finished only 31 seconds adrift and bettered his 2008 winning time by 18 seconds.
Whereas previous years had been dominated by foreign athletes, Nkgabutlane was the only non South African to make the top ten which was closed in under two hours 19 minutes.
“I’m very pleased. The last two years I’ve struggled with injury, the new training has paid off,” said Mofokeng explaining, “I’m a front runner, when the pace eased I knew if I took the lead they would not catch me.”
“We will definitely be inviting George to join the performance squad in the preparation for the 2012 Olympics,” said Molatelo Malehopo the ASA General Manager following Mofokeng’s victory.
Sharon Tavengwa defended her title but not without a few anxious moments. The Zimbabwean was the main instigator in the large group that opened their racing on a two hour 40 minute schedule. Despite a slowing in pace many were shed from the pack leaving only six to go through half way in a more realistic one hour 24 minutes. By Salt River, Tavengwa and Powerade’s Mpho Mabuza were replicating the men’s stratgey to ease away from the competition going through the 27km mark.
The Zimbabwean had the lead by the Waterfront and seemed to have it sewn up, but the fast early pace came back to haunt her as the covered the final four kilometres. Nedbank’s Tshifhiwa Mundalamo first overhauled Mabuza before upping her pace to hunt down Tavengwa who was forced to checked behind as her lead was being etched away. A dogged kick for the line secured the Zimbabwean her title in two hours 47 minutes and eight seconds, nearly five minutes slower than her 2008 win while Mundalamo simply ran out of distance to finish only 16 seconds later.
To the local crowd’s pleasure Bulelwa Mtshagi from the Celtic Harriers club secured third in 2:47:38, with Mabuza hanging on for fourth nine seconds later.
“The incentives are there to assist South Africans improve their performance. Clearly this is having an effect” continued Malehopo in regards to the top performances which saw all the top ten women finish under two hours 55 minutes.
The Cape Town event attracted just under 3000 runners including Germans, Japanese and a group of more than 40 businessmen from Rotterdam Running Ambassadors.
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