The Khulani Athletics Club, based largely, but not solely, in Mdantsane will celebrate their fifth anniversary in November and what an incredible five years of growth they have enjoyed.
Launched on February 5 2020, the club showed tremendous resilience given that the first Covid-19 lockdown was announced on March 23 that year.
Khulani means growth and the club adopted the butterfly as their logo, given that the butterfly evolves in stages.
The origins of the club emanated from a group of novice runners who met in Mdantsane and ran together.
The natural progression was to enter road races where individuals, who are not club members, purchase temporary licence numbers, a cost not met by those who do belong to a club. The decision to form a club and affiliate to Border Athletics thus became a natural development.
Races such as the Comrades Marathon were a goal for some and, like most road running communities, distance also became a goal.
However, in their first two years of existence there were few road races taking place and no Comrades in 2020 or 2021.
They also hoped to stage their own races but had to wait until 2022 when they launched their first 10km event, which was encouragingly successful.
In 2024, they added the Trail Grinder Half-Marathon to their stable and after sound interaction with the media by Vuyo Losina, attracted a great turnout. There were top men in the form of Yanga Malusi and Masixole Xayiya, while the women were led home by Zandile Rubushe and Zuki Sam.
This year, some of the top men included Xayiya, Malixole Kalideni, Thandikhaya Siyongo and Sinethemba Jilingisi, with Andrea Ranger and Effe Moyo improving the women’s times.
Former chair and now race director Zukile Jonginamba said the club’s favourite outings included the tough Bridle Drift Half-Marathon and the Zwelitsha to Mdantsane 50km ultra, both organised by neighbours Real Gijimas.
They do, however, also enjoy the faster marathon qualifiers for Two Oceans and Comrades, which are the Buffs Marathon in early March and the Tony Viljoen Masters in September.
As is the case with most new running communities, distance is a tonic to Khulani members and runners who stick to shorter distances attract a nickname, the details of which were not shared with the Daily Dispatch in conversation, but accepted with good humour.
Khulani have had up to 32 entrants at Comrades, with two runners delivering silver medals for under 7½ hours and a good deal more earning the Bill Rowan medal for completing the race in less than nine hours.
The silver medal men are Sibabalwe Mkanzi, with two and a best time of 7:26:10, and Masixole Guzana, with one in a superb 7:04:35. Guzana also ran a Bill Rowan time of 7:49:55 in 2022.
In 2026, at the 99th Comrades, will the club perhaps chase their record of 14 Bill Rowan medals achieved in 2024? Their determination for growth would suggest so.
Daily Dispatch
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