Elliott Makgoba (Monaco), who refused to accept defeat, made the 2012 Comrades champion work hard for his victory. The battle between the two athletes continued until the final kilometres, when Mamabolo eventually won the running dual by a mere nine seconds.

His winning time was 1:14:51, with Makgoba finishing in 1:15:00. Surprise Makofane was third in 1:18:38.

Another good result for Mamabolo this season was his second-place finish (in 2:25:25) at the Johnson Crane Marathon.

Mamabolo, along with Gift Kelehe (Comrades winner, 2015), David Gatebe (Comrades winner, 2016), Bongumusa Mthembu (Comrades, third place, 2016) and Rufus Photo (Comrades, fifth place, 2016) are the athletes who will compete at the 100 km World Championship in Los Alcazares, Spain, on 27 November.

The Nedbank Running Club athlete admits that running was not always his favourite sport.

'At first I was an avid soccer player, but I realised that there is an age restriction in soccer. You can play up to a certain age, but when you reach that age, you can, in effect, no longer take part. Running does not have that limitation, so I said to myself, 'Why don't you try something you can do on your own?' At the relatively late age of 23 I became a competitive runner.'

Mamabolo says the best advice he ever got was to never quit what he started.

• Berdine Smith finished second in the women's CSI Marathon in Bloemfontein last weekend. Her time was 3:26:07.

 

• Piet Jacobs had a bitter-sweet moment in Daegu, South Korea last weekend. He won the half-marathon but, unfortunately for him, he forgot his race number at home, which meant that his victory was not official.
Two weeks ago he finished third in a trail run.

• Fortunate Chidzivo continued her excellent form to win the Wineland half-marathon in Stellenbosch last weekend in a time of 1:21:00.

Phathiswa Dyalvane finished 5th in the women's marathon and Sityhilo Diko was 4th in the men's marathon.
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