BARRIER-BREAKING ULTRA RUNNER GABASHANE HAS DIED
By Riël Hauman
(c) 2010 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
Gabashane (Vincent) Rakabaele, the best distance runner to come out of
the tiny African kingdom of Lesotho, died on an unspecified date in
2009. Rakabaele, born on 3 September 1949, was the first black athlete
to win an official Comrades Marathon medal.
Apart from his barrier-breaking effort in the 1975 Comrades, Rakabaele
will be best remembered for his two magnificent victories in South
Africa’s other major ultramarathon, Cape Town’s Two Oceans Marathon
over 56 km. Like the Comrades, this race was opened to all race groups
in 1975. The next year Rakabaele, after one of the most exciting
head-to-head clashes in the history of the race, won in a course record
3:18:05 to beat Alan Robb by a mere 6 seconds.
In 1977 Rakabaele, not fully prepared, finished 43rd, but in 1978 he
was second to Brian Chamberlain and in 1979 won for the second time to
regain the record Chamberlain (3:15:22) had taken from him in 1977. His
time was 3:08:56 and he won by almost 10 minutes.
Rakabaele’s record stood until 1981 when, after a dramatic tussle
between him and Johnny Halberstadt, the latter clocked 3:05:37 to beat
the Lesotho runner by 3 min 40 sec. Nine years later Rakabaele won the
veterans (masters) title in 3:18:10.
Before 1975 the country’s apartheid policies forbade competition
between white and black athletes, unless the government gave the event
“multi-national” status. Black runners had long participated
unofficially in the Comrades, South Africa’s biggest ultramarathon, but
in 1975 they could do so officially for the first time. It was the 50th
running of the race, and women were also given official status for the
first time. Rakabaele finished 20th in 6:27 (in those days the times of
runners outside the top ten were recorded only in full minutes).
In 1976 he was eighth and this started speculation that he could become
the first black winner of the race. However, this was not to be and the
best he could do was fourth in 1977 in 6:03:50 – almost 17 minutes
behind Robb.
Rakabaele also won the SA Marathon in 1976, 1979 and 1982. His 2:12:27
in Port Elizabeth in 1979, beating Halberstadt, gave him 21st position
on the world list for the year (and third best African behind Ethiopian
Kebede Balcha and Halberstadt).
In 1982 he won the Interprovincial Marathon, again in Port Elizabeth,
in a career best 2:11:44. This time he was 20th on the world list, once
more the third best runner on the continent (behind Tanzanian Juma
Ikangaa and Kenya’s Jospeh Nzau).
Rakabaele ran most of his races in South Africa, usually representing
one of the big gold mining clubs that supported elite black runners
during the glory days of South African road racing from the late
seventies to the early nineties.
Among his other major marathon wins were the Peninsula (1980), Foot of
Africa (‘80, ‘82, ‘83), Winelands (‘79) and Port Elizabeth City (‘83).
Rakabaele twice represented Lesotho in the Olympic Marathon. In 1980 he
was 36th in 2:23:29 and four years later 61st in 2:32:15.
Information about the date and cause of his death is unclear. He would
have been 60 last September. He is buried at Ha Rakabaele in Lesotho.
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