WORLD BEATER

HIS NAME MIGHT MEAN ‘LUCKY'; BUT LUCK IS NOT THE REASON FOR SA STAR STEPHEN MOKOKA'S CONSISTENT AND WORLD-BEATING SUCCESS.

- MARK ETHERIDGE

HIS GIVEN NAME IN TSWANA IS LESEGO, MEANING 'LUCKY' IN ENGLISH; and the South African athletics and sports fraternity can indeed feel lucky to have been blessed with the multiple running abilities of Stephen Mokoka.

In July, the Tshwane talent mixed it with the best South Africa had to offer when he lined up for the Absa Run Your City 10km road race in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal - and not only ended up second behind Boxer Athletic Club teammate Kabelo Seboko, but dipped under the 28-minute mark.

Not bad, given that the 'grand old man' of South African running had already turned 38 in January this year. He was the oldest top-10 finisher in Durban by some eight years.

But the little man with the big heart is showing no signs of slowing down, as evidenced by his marathon personal best of 2:06:42 in Osaka, Japan, less than a month after turning 38. That's a scant nine seconds outside the South African record held by Gert Thys and set last century, in 1999. So there's no doubting he's still at the top of his game.

Just how has Mokoka remained so competitive for such a marathon period of time? He puts it down to stability. He's had the same coach - Michael 'Sponge' Seme - for 19 years now, he's learned to trust the training processes, and he doesn't jump the gun.

So that's Mokoka today; and he's had a great year so far, with that marathon PB and the encouraging 10km in Durban. But where did it all begin for him, back in 1985?

"I was born in a tiny village called Six Hundred, in North West, near the Botswana border, and I was raised by a single parent. And these days, of my family I only have a younger brother alive.