Gelant shakes off Olympic disappointment with sub-28 minute 10km

Elroy Gelant brushed aside his disappointment of missing out on this year’s Olympic Games by showcasing his spectacular form on Sunday, setting a new 10km personal best in Cape Town.

Gelant finished second at the Absa Run Your City race, crossing the line in 27:54 to become the seventh South African to dip under 28 minutes over the 10km distance on the road, as he climbed to fifth place in the all-time SA rankings.

The 37-year-old athlete finished three seconds behind Kenya’s Vincent Langat, who won the race in 27:51.

Another Kenyan athlete, Diana Chepkorir, won the women’s contest in 31:47, and Cacisile Sosibo was the top South African, finishing fourth overall in 34:00.

Gelant had targeted the SA record of 27:35 held by Precious Mashele, as he pushed the pace throughout the race, but he ultimately fell 19 seconds short.

“I knew the wind was going to be a factor, and it was, but my mind was set on my plan. I didn’t get there, but I’m still happy with my performance,” he said.

No place in Paris

Gelant, a former national record holder over 5,000m on the track, had hoped to compete at the Paris Olympics in August, but he narrowly missed out on the qualifying standard of 2:08:10 when he clocked 2:08:56 in Seville in February.

Despite increasing his ranking points by winning the SA marathon title in Durban last month in 2:09:32, he was lying 83rd in the qualifying list for the Games when the window period closed on 30 April, with only 80 spots available in the men’s marathon field.

And with World Athletics confirming earlier this week that 11 men had received universality places – reserved for countries that don’t have qualified athletes for the Olympics, in order to ensure inclusivity – it looked like Gelant’s hopes of competing in the French capital had been dashed.

SA qualifiers

Though Gelant appeared set to miss out on his third appearance at the quadrennial Games (final Olympic qualifiers were expected to be released later on Sunday) four South Africans had secured their places after achieving the automatic qualifying standards for the marathon races.

Stephen Mokoka was confirmed this week in the line-up for the men’s race in Paris after clocking 2:06:42 in Osaka last year, while Gerda Steyn (2:24:03), Cian Oldknow (2:25:08) and Irvette van Zyl (2:26:11) all dipped under the required standard of 2:26:50 in the women’s event.