Gelant just keeps on galloping

MATSHELANE MAMABOLO

IT JUST keeps getting better for Elroy Gelant this year. Having already run personal best (PB) times in the marathon back in February and the 10km earlier this month, the Boxer Athletics Club stalwart added the South African marathon title to the list.

Victorious in the Durban International Marathon, which incorporated the ASA Marathon Championships, with an impressive 2:09:32, he is hopeful he will make it to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games after falling just short of the requisite 2:08:10 automatic qualification time. He remained qualified via the rankings in 80th place immediately after the race, but with the Hamburg Marathon taking place later in the day, anything was still possible.

The uncertainty did not seem to bother him, his delight at the success in Durban knowing no bounds.

“I am happy for this,” he told journalists immediately after the race. “My goal was just to win the national title and this (overall) race win is a bonus for me. I am happy where I am, especially leading to the Olympics with this 2:09 run.”

A two-time Olympian, having represented South Africa in the 10 000m at the Rio Games in 2016 and then in the marathon at Tokyo 2020 three years ago (those games took place a year later due to the Covid-19 pandemic), Gelant is itching to go to the sporting spectacle a third time.

“It would mean a lot for me if I qualified for the Olympics, it would be my third Games. I told myself this year I want to qualify for the Olympics although it was a bit difficult in the (past year) to get myself extra motivation to qualify. But when the year started it was an automatic switch to say ‘it is Olympic year’. I’ve got the experience and I know what it would take to qualify.”

He came within inches of qualifying when he ran a PB of 2:08 in the 42.195km distance at the Seville Marathon in February, a run that surprised many in the road running sphere given that he is now 37 years old and should be slowing down instead of clocking up personal best times.

The 2018 South African marathon champion showed that it was no fluke when he later ran another PB, this time in the 10km during the Absa Run Your City Gqeberha10K at the beginning of this month, and by taking home the silver medal in the 1500m from the SA Senior Track and Field Championships.

Yesterday’s win over a pretty strong field confirmed that, like the wines from his hometown of George in the Western Cape, Gelant is getting better with time.

He beat the younger Matthews Leeto, who tried to surge away with about 7km left but only succeeded in breaking the bunch to leave the race as a three-way contest with the revered Stephen Mokoka in the mix.

“I made my move at the turn around the 36km (mark) when Leeto went and I knew that if I could go past him I would out-sprint him. Stephen was still there, but I knew he still had the Two Oceans in him. So in the last 4km I could feel that I had it in the bag,” Gelant said of what was eventually a comfortable victory as he beat Leeto by a good 15sec, with Mokoka coming in third overall with his 2:09:52.

But with Mokoka not participating in the national championships, 2022 champion Tumelo Motlagale – who finished eighth in the overall race – took the bronze medal spot in 2:12:48.

It was Gelant everyone was celebrating, though, as the South African running stalwart showed that age is just a number with yet another brilliant run this year and his second national marathon title.