South African 10km hand-cycling record holder Sister Maseko settled for ninth position overall at the 42km OCC Outeniqua Wheelchair Challenge in George late last month.
The Boksburg Correctional Services radio room operator went into the race with one thing in sight: emulating his heroics in the 10km distance by breaking the event’s 42km record of 1:19:00.
But despite his best attempts, Maseko agonisingly came short of his goal by 17 seconds when he crossed the finishing mark in 1:36:00.
Asked to share his thoughts on the race and outcome, Maseko opted to splash his new sponsor Lan Credit Solutions with praise: “I’m not happy because when I spoke to my sponsors, I had given them my word that I’m going to break the record but I was out by 17 seconds so I broke that promise with my sponsors.
“But I’ve promised my sponsor that I’ll go back to the 10km and I’d be happy when they come and witness me race for the first time.”
Not all was lost for the Boksburg hand-cycler though as there was a sweet side to his bitterness for falling short of his aimed record mark.
He acquired his first sponsor in Lan Credit Solutions right before George where he received a silver medal. Moreover, he significantly improved on his 42km time with the 1:36:00 quicker than the two-hour mark he used to flirt with.
Lan Credit Solutions boss Moshe Nkadimeng also implied that their new client is being a tad too harsh on himself.
He said: “I know he (Maseko) had a target but his position is a good achievement.
“Through better training, we will see more improvement. We as sponsors are happy to sponsor a man like Sister; we as sponsors are not willing to take advantage of the situation.
“People tend to neglect disabled people but this will open a lot of peoples’ eyes that just because you’re disabled, it does not mean all is lost.
“We looking for better improvement from Sister and I’m sure he will achieve more successful results going forward.”
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