JOHANNESBURG – Edward Mothibi will not forget 2019 in a hurry.
His most recent success came about late on Wednesday night in San Francisco where he won the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge to help Implats (the Implala Platinum Mine running team) grab the title.
Slender smashed the 5.6km distance of the relay format competition in what was described as “the second fastest time ever for the distance”, of 15:48 to beat James Hoad and Tom Jervis into second and third spots respectively. The BP PLC London runners clocked 16:03 and 16:04.
“I’m very happy to win the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge, first overall, and win the world championship as a company with Implats,” Mothibi posted on his Facebook page yesterday.
Making Mothibi’s victory all the more incredible was the fact that it came just four days after he had finished fifth at the IAU World 50km Championships in Romania to help Team South Africa to win the competition overall.
The man from Koikoi in Mafikeng, North West had announced himself as a star runner by winning the Comrades Marathon Up Run from Durban to Pietermaritzburg at first attempt earlier in June. He had finished fourth last year for his debut run when the famous KwaZulu/Natal ultra was ran in the opposite direction.
That he beat the three-time champion Bongmusa Mthembu, who was looking to complete a hat-trick of wins, made Mothibi’s Comrades success all the more special.
His win in San Francisco proved Slender is not only a strong endurance runner but pretty fast too.
With Mothibi in the Implats team was David Gatebe, who was also in Romania with Team South Africa and finished fifth out of the six men who were coached by Nick Bester.
In San Francisco, he ran a 16:48 to place eighth overall.
The lesser known members of Team Implats did better, Moeketsi Tseiso taking fourth position in 16:31 while Samuel Matsepe ran a 16:41 for seventh place.