Runners shine at CGA finale

Central Gauteng Athletics (CGA) runners excelled at the 2020 CGA Track and Field finale held on December 5 at Boksburg Stadium.

Atiso Molefe, communications officer of CGA, said after rain in the morning, the CGA Track and Field commission, in consultation with the technical committee, had to call off certain events such as hurdles, long jump, high jump, shot put, javelin, discus and triple jump as a result of slippery and unsafe conditions.

“The event continued with track events in the middle distance, including the race walk. The first event of the day was the race walk, walkers’ first competitive event since the Covid-19 outbreak.”

Molefe said Neo Moloi and Thuto Mokoena competed in the 3km race walk distance and strode to victory in the drizzling conditions.

“It was really hard to determine who is going to win until Mokoena accelerated to leave a gap of one metre between him and his rival.

“In the last lap at the 200-metre mark, Moloi picked up his pace to convincingly finish second behind Mokoena in outstanding times of 14:42.80 and 14:57.90 respectively.”

Molefe said the day started well for Casey Bosman with her exceptional performance, following her injury during the Covid-19 alert level four lockdown.

“She was part of a very competitive 5 000m event as a junior athlete, with the lineup including the likes of Dempster Mega and other prominent senior athletes.

“Megan Dempster, who led the race up until the last lap, with Bosman taking the lead in the final lap to secure her victory in the time of 18:36.58. Dempster settled for the second place, clocking 18:49.11.”

“I wasn’t worried about the position, all I have been doing was to train for good times considering that I’ll be a senior next year meaning I have to better my times,” said Bosman.

Molefe said one of the most remarkable events of the day was the 5 000m senior men event, which saw a total of 17 athletes lining up at the start.

“Precious Mashele was the day’s favourite. He was determined to clock under the 14-minute mark to cross the finishing line in 13:58.9. Mashele is preparing to run the 2021 Kyoto Marathon in Japan next year February.”

The second position was taken by Dylan van der Merwe, who also won the Alberton 10km race at the beginning of November in a time of 15:06.

“In the 1 500m senior men’s event, we saw a battle of UJ runners between Maxime Chaumeton, Elvis Mokhonoana and Boikanyo Motlhamme.

“Chaumeton proved to be a better runner when he settled the event with a season’s personal best time of 03:46.93 to crush the time of 3:55 set by Elvis Mokhonoana at CGA Open Meeting on October 5, 2019, at Germiston Stadium,” said Molefe.

“Mokhonoana improved his personal best by four seconds to finish second in 03:51.03, while Motlhamme took third place in a time of 03:54.06.

“We are looking at having even more support in the new year, with the first track meeting expected to take place on January 23,” said Molefe.

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