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News11 Apr 2000


Marathon win could buy time for Thugwane's coach

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Marathon win could buy time for Thugwane's coach
Reuters

12 April 2000 – London - If Olympic champion Josiah Thugwane wins Sunday's London Marathon he could buy precious time for his coach Jacques Malan.

Malan, father figure, coach and friend to the South African runner, was diagnosed with colon cancer 18 months ago and told he had a year to live.

"I said to him, if you run well that's going to make me happy. The happier I am the more chance I have of fighting off the disease," Malan said on Tuesday.

Healthy living has bought him another year, but the cancer has now spread to his liver.

When asked what it would mean to him if Thugwane won on Sunday, a visibly emotional Malan told Reuters: "I get goosefleshy with you just asking me that."

Thugwane, who became the first black South African to win an Olympic title at the 1996 Atlanta Games, was quietly optimistic about his chances of success.

"Everything's perfect," he smiled. "If the body is okay, there's no problem."

JUMPING WHEELCHAIRS

But Thugwane has failed to finish in London for the past two years.

In 1997 he placed third in London and went on to win the prestigious Fukuoka race in Japan with a course record and personal best of 2:07.28.

Just months later he injured himself trying to jump over a wheelchair and was forced out of the London Marathon less than half the way round.

He has encountered problems in all his marathons since and in last year's London race he dropped out after reaching halfway in 63.33.

Malan said he believed other factors attributed to Thugwane's lagging performance.

"In 1998 when he started running badly I was diagnosed with cancer. He was convinced he had it too and couldn't accept I was going to die."

The relationship the two share makes that easy to believe.

"If the swimming pool stops he'll phone me and say it's broken and I'll fix it," said Malan.

He organised for Thugwane, who never went to school, to learn to read and write in his native Zulu at the age of 26.

Thugwane has faced tough choices throughout his life. He pulled out of a major British race in 1996 after receiving death threats from township gangsters jealous of his Olympic success.

Before he hit the sporting headlines, when he was working as a cleaner, a gang set upon Thugwane intent on stealing his truck. He escaped as his attackers opened fire, one bullet grazing his chin.

SYDNEY HOPES

Thugwane, fresh from altitude training at the Gammahoek Game Lodge in South Africa's north, is in high spirits before Sunday's race which he called his last chance to qualify for the Sydney Olympics.

Criticism from South Africa's press over his pre-Olympic training had failed to put him off.

"It is easy to concentrate in a race. I'm not running for the people of the crowd, I'm running for me."

"It's no problem qualifying for the race, it's a slow time," he said of his country's 2.11.00 Olympic qualifying time, a full three minutes faster than the IAAF international standard for for the marathon.

"If I go to Sydney, I will try to defend my title. I will feel very happy to go there. I just want to be there to defend."

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