Chris Theko
Lesotho’s top marathoner, Teboho Sello, is hoping to put up his best performance during this year’s edition of the Comrades Marathon on Sunday.
The 95th Comrades Marathon will be a Down Run on Sunday.
The race will start at the Pietermaritzburg City Hall at 05:30 am and end 12 hours later at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, covering a 90.184km distance.
This will be the 47th Down Run in Comrades history.
The 43-year-old Sello told Newsday Sports this week that he is in top mental and physical condition at present and looking forward to the gripping race.
“One can never say they have prepared fully for such a race but I believe I am well fit and ready to tackle it,†Sello said.
“I am counting on the experience I have gathered over the past years to help me get to the finish line hopefully as the winner this year,†he added.
The Maxed Elite club runner, Sello has two Comrades Gold medals.
The illustrious Comrades Gold medal was first introduced in 1931 and was awarded to the first 6 athletes to cross the line. That was extended to the first 10 athletes in 1972.
In 2016, he led the race to Fields Hill, setting up a frantic pace which helped set David Gatebe on his way to a new record. He eventually succumbed to cramps and slipped to 11th position.
He will look to build on that promising performance and challenge for a top 10 position.
Sello has won several trophies running under the umbrella of Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) Athletics Club, Lesotho Correctional Service (LCS) Athletics Club, Liberty Athletics Club and Toyota Club before he later joined his current stable, the Mr Price Athletics Club.
He also serves as the manager of Mr Price Club Lesotho athletes.
He won silver at the 2005 Two Oceans Marathon which was a qualification ticket for the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia where he finished 10th.
He is the 2006 City to City marathon top 10 finalist after finishing in the seventh position. He won the Soweto marathon the following year.
In 2008, he appeared second in the same race and finished third in the Johannesburg marathon the same year, before winning the second prize at the 2009 Soweto marathon.
He also won the City to City marathon the same year.
He appeared third at the 2010 Two Oceans marathon and was second placed at the Soweto marathon the same year. ‘He finished third in the 2014 edition of the Soweto marathon.
He thereafter shifted his focus to the Comrades marathon (89km) and is today affectionately known as the Comrades marathon specialist after finishing among the top 10 in 2014 and 2017.
Sello did not impress during the 2018 edition of the race due to a muscle injury but managed to win second prize in the 40 to 50-year category.
The Comrades Marathon is an ultramarathon of approximately 89 kilometres (55 mi) which is run annually in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa between the cities of Durban and Pietermaritzburg.
It is the world’s largest and oldest ultramarathon race. The direction of the race alternates each year between the “up†run (87 km) starting from Durban and the “down†run (now 90.184 km) starting from Pietermaritzburg.
The 2022 Comrades Marathon is a down run, finishing at Moses Mabhida stadium.
