Anastacius Ontong surprised friend and foe on Saturday when he scored an unexpected victory over Chabeli Nyedimane at the inaugural 4-km Dräger Leon Botha Legacy race at the Tempe Sports Centre in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
The 4 km legacy walk/jog/run was staged in memory of the late Leon Botha, for the great role he played in promoting athletics as an athlete, coach and administrator for more than five decades. Botha, who was known as “Mr Athletics” in the Free State, passed away on 3 January 2016.
The race for men turned out a thrilling sprint finish for the line between Nyedimane and Ontong over the last 100 m. With 300 m to the line, Nyedimane, who has not lost a race against Ontong in 2016 and 2017, was in the lead and it seemed he would force Ontong into second place once again.
Ontong, however, had other plans. This former national youth middle-distance medal winner used his track experience to come from behind to pip Nyedimane on the line. Ontong stopped the electronic timekeeping device at 11:53,90 to beat Nyedimane (11:54,49) by a mere fifty nine hundredth of a second. The junior talent, Lephaila Mosuwe, finished in third in 12:03,99.
The junior, Tyler Beling, had it all her own way in the race for women. She won in 13:53,59 to beat second-placed Annah Moeketsi (14:10,36) comfortably. The Olympic Games 800-m runner from Lesotho, Tshepang Sello, finished third in 14:41,54.
The international race walker, Mthembu Chauke, produced one of the best performances on the day when he finished the 4 km, walking, in a brilliant time of 16:27,98 to be the 34th out of 169 competitors in the rain.
R10 000 was up for grabs for the first athletes who could better the Leon Botha 4-km respective route records for men and women, but these brilliant records, belonging to Anton Nicolaisen (10:45) and Zola Budd (12:18), remained untouched. – RUFUS BOTHA
