Sehohle geared up for Comrades debut

After announcing his decision to step up to the ultra marathon distance, Flavio Sehohle will be among the athletes lining up for the Comrades Marathon on the 9th of June. Sehohle has been training under legendary Comrades coach John Hamlett, who has produced over 70 Comrades gold medalists, to prepare him to tackle the longest distance of his career.

The 33-year-old hasn't had a bad start to his ultra career under Hamlet. The Nelspruit-based top runner finished in eleventh place on his Totalsports Two Oceans Marathon 56km debut in a time of 3:15:22 - which has fuelled him to believe that he is responding well to his new coach's training program as well as the new distance.

Sehohle grits his teeth through the pain of the last kilometre on his way to an 11th place finish at the 2024 Totalsports Two Oceans Ultra Marathon. Photo Credit: Action Photo.

"I think I surprised myself with the way I ran the race. I put out a very good performance on the day to finish in 11th place especially on my first time," explains former 1 500m national Champion who now runs in the colours of Pan African Resources Running Club.

"I was not disappointed to finish outside of the top 10, even though I would have loved to be there. After the race, I received a call from Gift Kelehe to congratulate me with the way I ran and he motivated me to keep pushing. That was big for me. I think everything went according to the plan on race day. That performance was crucial in order to see how I am adapting to the new distance. It was a big tester for me. So I can safely say I'm ready to line up for Comrades as I have done all the training accordingly," he told #TheTopRunner.

Hamlett (on bike) alongside Sehohle (cap) during a recovery run at their training base in the high altitude Mpumalanga town of Dullstroom. Photo Credit: Supplied.

Despite the Comrades preparations done at high altitude in the Mpumalanga Dullstrom having being fruitful, the man who was first discovered and mentored by the legendary Zithulele Sinqe on Johannesburg's West Rand plans is cautious about his target for the 90km race from Durban to Pietermaritzburg.

"Comrades requires endurance which is quite different from the track where I use to do speed. You have to put in a lot of hours on your feet in training in order to get ready for race day. So my aim is to finish the race without putting myself under too much pressure about time and position. Then once I'm familiar with the distance, I can start looking for more. Anything beyond finishing would be a bonus to me."