Awards

MODERN ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

What a year 2023 was , with so many standout performances ! So , here are our nominees for the road running component of the inaugural Modern Athlete of the Year Awards . – BY MANFRED SEIDLER with SEAN FALCONER

Looking back , one simply has to acknowledge that 2023 was a phenomenal year in South African road running , across the distance spectrum , and on both the men ’ s and women ’ s fronts , with SA Records and course records being broken , ‘ new kids on the block ’ coming through , and the country earning a World Championship medal for the first time in many years . So , when it came to sitting down to decide on a short list of nominees for these awards , we found that we could propose quite a number of athletes across the

Shorter Distances – 5km to 21.1km | Men ’ s Nominees

1 Maxime Chaumeton

He may not have raced much in 2023 – he tends to race sparingly – but two SA Records for the 5km ( now recognised globally as an official racing distance ) means that Maxime cannot be overlooked for these awards . After finishing second at the SA 5km Championships at Nasrec in June , Maxime was selected to be part of the national team to the World Road Running Championships in Latvia , where he set his first national record of 13:36 . He went on to take 18 seconds off that PB , and set his second SA Record , at the Al Khobar 5km in Saudi Arabia in December , racing to a 13:18 finish .

3 Thabang Mosiako

It ’ s fair to say that Thabang came of age in 2023 . He posted three sub-28-minute performances over 10k – the most by any South African ever , never mind in one calendar year – and set a massive PB in front of his home crowd at the NMB Half Marathon as he won the second national title of his career . He then finished sixth at the World Half Marathon Championships with another PB . His first sub-28 came in in the Absa RUN YOUR CITY GQEBERHA , where clocked 27:52 , and that was followed by 27:59 for second in the Absa race in Durban , after his incredible 21.1km win in Gqeberha in 1:00:29 . At the World Half Marathon Championships , Thabang ’ s 59:52 for sixth place led the SA men to the team bronze medal , and gave him the second-best time ever by a South African , behind the SA Record of Stephen Mokoka ( 59:36 ). The cherry on top for Thabang was his third sub-28 as he finished sixth in Lille , France in November , with his 27:45 setting a massive PB by eight seconds and moving him to third on the SA all-time list , behind Precious Mashele ( 27:35 ) and Stephen Mokoka ( 27:38 ).

2 Precious Mashele

4 Kabelo Mulaudzi

various categories . So , without further ado , these are the athletes that we believe should be in the running for Athlete of the Year honours on the road for 2023 . ( Note that just to make things fair , we have arranged athletes alphabetically within each category .)

Precious began his 2023 campaign with a strong showing at the World Cross Country Championships in Australia , finishing 16th in a brutally tough men ’ s race , and he that form powered him to a new SA Record for 10km at the inaugural Absa RUN YOUR CITY race in Gqeberha in April . In trying to chase down Kenya ’ s Daniel Ebenyo , Precious crossed the line in 27:35 , taking a massive 25 seconds off his previous best ( 2021 ), and eclipsing Stephen Mokoka ’ s 2015 SA Record of 27:38 . Precious also finished second at the Nelson Mandela Bay Half Marathon , which doubled as the SA Half Marathon Championships , clocking his fourth-best time of 1:00:43 , and he would go on to win the inaugural Boxer Superstores 5km , in windy conditions .

After struggling with injury and rejoining former coach Richard Meyer , Kabelo hit a purple batch in the second half of the year . The big breakthrough came in July , at the Absa RUN YOUR CITY DURBAN 10K , where he led three South Africans home in a sub-28-minute sprint finish with Thabang Mosiako and Stephen Mokoka . Kabelo ’ s 27:56 moved him to fourth on the all-time list of South African 10km runners , and he proved unstoppable after that , winning the Hollywoodbets Durban 10km in 28:01 and claiming the 10km title at the SA Cross Country Championhips , then adding the title at the inaugural Absa RUN YOUR CITY TSWANE . That means that Kabelo took four wins from four starts , against the best in the country , over a period of three months !

Images : Guntis Berzins / World Athletics , Adam Nurkiewicz / World Athletics , Tobias Ginsberg , Anthony Grote , Rogan Ward , Action Photo SA & courtesy Comrades Marathon , Two Oceans Marathon

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