Absa Run Your City Tshwane 10K winner makes it two in a row, Ethiopians dominate women’s race
The first winner of the Absa Run Your City Tshwane 10K race celebrated his second successive victory in the series, as local women athletes were dominated by their North African rivals in this exciting new race.
Star athlete Kabelo Seboko-Mulaudzi made it two for two in the 2023 Absa Run Your City Series as he claimed line honours at the inaugural Absa Run Your City Tshwane 10K on Sunday, while Ethiopia’s Debash Desta secured the top spot on the podium in the Women’s Race.
Seboko-Mulaudzi and a big pack of 10 runners ran easy for the first 5km of the undulating course that started in the shadow of the iconic Union Buildings in Pretoria. Included in the pack were SA 10km record holder, Precious Mashele, SA 5km champion Nicholas Seoposengwe, two time Olympian, Elroy Gelant and fast improving Mathews Leeto, as well as Lesotho international, Namakoe Nkasi and Ethiopian, Adisa Wake.
Shortly after 5km, the surges started, with first Gelant driving the pace, before Leeto took over. But it was a hard push by Nkasi around 7.7km that finally broke the pack of ten and whittled it down to seven.
Mashele put in a surge around 8km, before Seboko-Mulaudzi started to drive the pace.
The 25-year-old Seboko-Mulaudzi, who also won the Absa Run Your City Durban 10K where he joined the prestigious sub 28min club in a 10km race, kept the pressure up and by 9km the lead group was down to three – Mashele, Wake and Seboko-Mulaudzi. Mashele made one final push for the line, but it was Seboko-Mulaudzi who finished stronger, crossing the line in 29:12, with Mashele second (29:14) and Wake rounding out the top three (29:15).
“The pace was not fast, so after 5km I tried to pick it up. The slower pace made me confident that I would be able to run hard in the second half of the race and win,” said Seboko-Mulaudzi after his victory.
Asked about his back-to-back wins at the Absa Run Your City series, Seboko-Muluadzi was predictably ecstatic.
“Ï am very happy, to win back-to-back is a great feeling and show’s I am in great shape,” he remarked with a big smile.
The Women’s Race was clearer cut than the men’s, as Ethiopia’s Debash Desta was in control from as early as the three-kilometre mark. The 21-year-old Ethiopian put in a surge after three kilometre that split the leading women, a group that included Glenrose Xaba, Neheng Khatala, Cacisile Sosibo, and Ethiopia’s Getenesh Sase Agafaw and Diniya Kedir Abaraya.
While Desta was in full control of the front of the race, there was a fierce battle brewing for second and third between the abovementioned. In the end the two Ethiopians were able to break away and claimed second and third to make it a clean sweep for Ethiopia. Agafaw ended second in 32:46min and Abaraya took the bronze medal in 32:48min, with Glenrose Xaba finishing 4th as the first South African in 33:23min.
Celebrating its Tshwane debut, the Absa Run Your City Tshwane 10K attracted an impressive field of just over 7000 entrants.
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