Ashley “Blokkie” Smith, 26, from Eastridge, hit the road to write his name into the history books at the weekend before hitting the books to work on completing his thesis as an Honours student at Stellenbosch University.
The star middle distance runner was first to cross the finish line in Sunday’s 21km Gun Run in Green Point, becoming the first Cape Town-born runner since Owen Machelm in 1998, to win the race.
“I’m grateful to bring it back home after almost 25 years,” said Smith who has been in excellent form over the last 12 months, winning his second SA title this year and finishing a mile in under four minutes to capture another “dream mile”.
A 3 000m steeplechase specialist, Smith joined an exclusive band of runners at Coetzenburg Stadium, in 2021, clocking a sub-4 in the mile to join the Dream Mile Club. His finishing time of 3min.58.63sec saw him walk away as the highest World Athletics points scoring athlete at last year’s invitational meet in Stellenbosch and the first Western Province athlete since Ebeneza Felix, in 1997, to accomplish a Dream Mile.
Smith considers himself a track athlete first, but also enjoys being out on the road.
“The purpose of Gun Run is just to make me stronger on the track and to be able to close faster towards the end track races,” he said.
Despite struggling with an Achilles injury for almost seven months and switching coaches, Smith continued his fine form at the African Championships in Mauritius earlier this year, finishing in eighth place against some of the best steeplechase runners in the world.
A former pupil at Imperial Primary School, in Beacon Valley, and the Western Cape Sports School, in Kuils River, Blokkie Vannie Plain, as he calls himself on social media, started out doing cross-country, but later switched to track and field.
After matriculating in 2014, he studied sport coaching for a year at Northlink College, followed by a year in America as a student at California Baptist University from 2016 to 2017 and to the Mother City in 2018. the global outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 may have halted immediate plans but Blokkie always kept an eye on the future, sticking to his schedule, training and studying. “It’s just that there were no races and studying was online, which was not hard to adapt to,” he said.
As far as preparations for Sunday’s race were concerned, it was business as usual.
“I knew the race was going to be tough, because it was my debut 21km. That last 3km and with the two Olympians in the race, I told myself to just be tough, stay in the moment and stay focused and at least try to stick with them till the last 100m. I knew that if I could do that, tmy track speed would be decisive at the finish and that’s what I did. I waited for the last 100m or so to sprint away from Desmond (Mokgobu) , the guy that finished second,” he said.
- Meanwhile, Cape Town-based athletes regained the thrones from their inland rivals in the 28th edition of the Gun Run with Smith and Zimbabwe-born Fortunate Chidzivo crowned king and queen. Gauteng-based Olympians Mokgobu and Gerda Steyn were relegated to close second places.
Smith, clocked 1hr 04min 16sec to win his half marathon debut – the first Western Cape-based athlete to take the tape since fellow-Matie, William Kaptein, won in 2014.
Chidzivo, running in the colours of Retail Capital Langa, was the first Cape-based female to win since Tanith Maxwell took line honours in 2013 when she crossed the line on the Green Point Common in 1:14:16 to win by 38 seconds.
Gauteng-based athletes came out ‘all guns blazing’ in the OUTsurance Gun Run 10km, with another Olympian, Precious Mashele, gaining his third OUTsurance victory with an impressive 10 second win over Eastern Cape athlete, Melikhaya Frans. Mashele’s winning time of 28:35 was just 24 seconds off his lifetime best.
And 38-year-old Johannesburg athlete Lebo-Diana Phalula was in a class of her own, winning the women’s competition in 34:54, more than two minutes clear of her Cape Town rivals and runners-up Anel Terblanche and Nolene Conrad, who for several reasons were not able to produce their best performances on the day.
More than 12 000 runners entered to take part in the five events which made up the OUTsurance Gun Run over the weekend, taking advantage of the perfect running conditions to enjoy a great day out along the western sea-board, celebrating the return of the Gun Run following a two-year COVID-enforced absence.
“Phew! The half-marathon is tough,” admitted Smith. “Those last 5km were murder! But I’d prepared well for the race, averaging 173km per week for twelve weeks leading up to the race, aimed at building my strength for the 3000m steeplechase and qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Additional reporting Stephen Granger/SPNAfrica
