Johannesburg – Saturday morning, Nicholas Seoposengwe exacted sweet vengeance as he outran Andries Sesedi to win the Absa Run Your City Joburg 10k.
Seoposengwe won the race in 29:42, five seconds ahead of the man who defeated him during the South African National 10km Championships in August.
The 21-year-olds are the rising stars of local middle-distance running, as demonstrated by their victory over a stellar field that included Mbuleli Mathanga, Elroy Gelant, Precious Mashele, and Melukhaya Frans.
Seoposengwe was obviously thrilled to have defeated his opponent.
“I lost some concentration at nationals. Today, I went all out from the beginning because I wanted to win. And I am ecstatic to have accomplished this, and sure, it is satisfying to defeat Andries.”
Given the steep inclines they had to scale, Seoposengwe acknowledged that the race was difficult.
In 29:55, Kabelo Seboko was third.
In the women’s race, the winner was the Kenyan Emmaculate Achol, followed by the South Africans Glenrose Xaba and Meskerem. Ethiopian King Tesfaye
Xaba demonstrated that she is truly the golden girl of South African middle distance running after capturing the national cross country 10km title.
“I had a nice run today, but towards the finish I felt tightness in my tendon, so I had to slow down a bit.”
Xaba will be trying to do equally as good if not better in next weekend’s Spar Ladies 10km Johannesburg leg.