Mtolo promises to be back

2003-06-18 10:12

Jerry Barnes

Pietermaritzburg - Will he be back in 2004? That was the obvious question after KwaZulu-Natal road running star Willie Mtolo again failed to fulfil his dream of winning the Comrades Marathon on Monday.

Speaking to the Witness after the race, Mtolo confirmed that he will be back because his ambition remains to win. "Sure I will be back and I can tell you that I just don't see myself giving it up until I win it. In any race, especially the Comrades Marathon, I always get tremendous support from everybody like my sponsors and my supporters on the road.

"A lot of the youngsters, and their parents, out there look on me as a role model. I'm very proud and feel honoured by that and I want to pay them back by winning the race."

Mtolo ran his fourth Comrades on Monday and earned himself a gold medal when he finished in eighth position in 5 hours 41.29 minutes.

The 39-year-old road runner is also a former New York Marathon winner. He entered Comrades in 1989, a down run, and after running well for most of the race he cramped badly as he entered Durban, but still managed to secure the second position behind Sam Tshabalala.

Last year Mtolo captured the hearts of the nation as he battled it out with the Belarussian Vladimir Kotov, eventually settling for second place in what was almost a replay of the 1989 race.

Mtolo agrees that the down run is not his race.

"I now realised that the down run always hurts me because sometimes you feel as if you are running with your hand brake on most of the time. I personally prefer to battle it out on the hilly course and the up run suits me better."

Mtolo said he was not upset by his eighth-place finish but was pleased that he held on for a gold medal.

"I might not have finished where I wanted but I still feel great that I managed to get into the top 10. My performance was not that bad."

- The Witness