Lesotho athletes outshine local runners in Hollywoodbets 10km race

Lesotho athletes Tebello Ramakongoana and Neheng Khatala dominated the Hollywoodbets 10km race in Durban on Sunday, winning both the men’s and women’s races.

Ramakongoana beat a strong field that included Elroy Gelant, Stephen Mokoka, Kabelo Mulaudzi and Thabang Mosiako to finish first in 28:07.

Gelant was second in 28:08, while Kamohelo Mofolo was third in 28:10 to round up the podium finish.

Ramakongoana was excited about the win and said the plan was to run sub-28, but the windy conditions disturbed his plans.

“I’m very happy to have won the race because I came here to taste my body after the tough competitions in the [Paris] Olympics if I was good enough to compete again,” Ramakongoana told the media after the race.

“I planned to run sub 28, and after 2km, I felt that it was windy and I dropped the pace and ran behind the group. When we reached the 6km mark, I decided to go. That’s where I managed to win the race from there.”

Ramakongoana was also happy to have finished ahead of Gelant, an athlete he rates highly.

“If you are well prepared, well planned everything is possible. Galant is a good runner, he is faster than me and I respect him a lot,” he said.

“Today [Sunday], I decided to go from 6km and increased the pace so he cannot catch me in the finish line.”

Meanwhile, Khatala was also pleased with her performance, especially considering that she had not been well leading up to the race last week.

“This means a lot because I was sick three days ago struggling with a tooth and went to the hospital and took antibiotics and I was away from training for three days,” Khatala said.

“On Thursday, I did a light session and I was not myself but I got a belief that let me just go there and do it and I won the race. I’m so excited.

“The pace was so comfortable it was around 3.20 per km and I was sure it would give me an advantage to move away at 8km.”

Khatala finished first in 32;26 ahead of Cacisile Sosibo (32:48) and Blandina Makatisi, who finished third with a time of 33:07.

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