Muzhingi AGAIN!!!

By Augustine Hwata

THE 2010 Comrades Marathon is being highly regarded in South Africa as the nation prepares to host the Fifa World Cup next month and one man from Zimbabwe — Stephen Muzhingi — is determined to enter the history books as the ultra-marathon’s winner in the year of the first World Cup on African soil.

Muzhingi made history when he won the competition last year, becoming the first African, outside South Africa, to achieve the feat.

He clocked 5 hours 23 minutes 27 seconds, the second-best time ever after the 5 hours 20 minutes 41 seconds set by Russia’s Leonid Shvestov in 2007.

Record holder Shvestov has retired because of a painful knee but Charles Tjiane, the first South African home and third-placed athlete last year, is set to try to win for his country.

Russia’s Olesya Nurgaliera won the women’s race in 6:12:12 while her sister Elena was second on 6:12:24 as Tatyana Zhivakera made sure the Russians took the first three places.

Tomorrow morning, the 34-year-old Muzhingi will be the focus of attention as he braves the chilly morning to defend his ultra-human title.

But Muzhingi’s heart is bleeding in that he will try to defend the 89km race without having brought the big trophy to his homeland.

In the Comrades tradition, the trophy is flown and paraded to the country of the winner outside South Africa before it is returned to South Africa.

With Muzhingi being the first African winner outside the host country, he had dreamt of a grand parade with the silverware in the streets of Harare and probably at his home village at Chitsa in Masvingo.

In a recent interview, Muzhingi said he wanted President Mugabe or Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai or Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda to receive the trophy.

"For other athletes, who have won before, the trophy was flown and presented to a prominent person in their country. It will really be a great honour to have the trophy brought to Zimbabwe for a while and be paraded.

"I did not know who among the prominent leaders was willing to receive it on my behalf. I have tried to go through the Sports Commission and the mayor (of Harare) but nothing worked out," said Muzhingi then.

Despite the opportunity to parade the trophy having slipped away from him, Muzhingi is determined to win again this year.

"I want to defend the title and set a new record," he said.

Muzhingi’s progress has been gradual after finishing third in 2008 in 5:39:40.

He said he needs to work in a team with other Zimbabweans and he hopes two or three of his compatriots will be his "runners."

Runners in long distance race are athletes who set a cracking pace just from the start and continue until they retire.

Their intention is to tire whoever tries to catch up with them and this allows the runners’ man to maintain his energy and eventually overtake any gullible athletes who had burnt themselves.

After the win, the victorious athlete will give a percentage of the purse to his "teammates."

"I need to work as a team. Marko helped me the last time when he set the pace and then burnt out," Muzhingi said.

Muzhingi won the uphill race in 5 hours 24 minutes and the race this year will be down hill starting from City Hall at 5:30am in Pietmaritzburg and finish at Sahara Stadium in Durban tomorrow.

The Zimbabwean running machine is not going to find it easy as 23 655 athletes are also seeking to dethrone him.

There are 1 084 foreign runners drawn from 76 countries for the world’s largest ultra-marathon race.

Muzhingi said it pained him last year when he broke the ribbon and found no-one from home to help him in the celebrations.

He was the dark horse and had finished ahead of the South Africans and then defending champion Leonid Shvestov from Russia.

"When I won, there were just a few acknowledgements from people on the finish and nothing else. What could I do? I was a winner in a foreign land. I felt lonely.

"The trophy weighs about 20kg coated with gold and no one came to help me lift it at the podium.

"I was all alone but some men from Zimbabwe then rushed to a nearby church and removed a Zimbabwean flag which they draped around me," he said.

Weeks later, Muzhingi went for the Kariba half-marathon where he was introduced to legendary Bruce Fordyce, a nine-time winner of the race.

The two later hooked up and went on a boat cruise in Kariba. It was the first time that Muzhingi has been on a boat, let alone a speedboat.

For winning the Comrades Marathon last year, Muzhingi got contracts for adverts in South Africa for a wide range of goods and services.

"I can go out to a restaurant and eat free meals.

"If they realise that I am Muzhingi, I do not pay but they ask me to sign on the walls that I ate at the place.

"The guys will be happy that Muzhingi, the Comrades Marathon, winner ate at their place," he said.

He has also received a deal from sportswear Asics worth R200 000 for two years and R70 00 from Nike.

Muzhingi said he also received R1.5 million for winning last year’s race but he believes only R220 000 was deposited into his account and could not access the rest.

It’s a pity! But Muzhingi managed to buy a house in Chitungwiza with part of his winning purse.

"I first bought a fridge and when I took it home, the landlord gave me notice to vacate.

"I then bought a house," he said.

Muzhingi grew up in the rural areas of Chitsa and said he used to run to school every day.

"I build my resilience through running to school and one of my teachers encouraged me to enter (road) races," he said.

Muzhingi is not just a runner and he has a profession.

"I am a barber by profession. I run a barber shop at Chikurubi camp. There is big business there because police recruits at Support Unit keep shaved heads."