SA record-holder targets World Championships qualification

The 36-year-old Boxer Running Club star wants to use next month's World Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, Australia to qualify for the biggest event on the world athletics calendar which is set to take place in Budapest from 19-21 August.

"Yes, I was fortunate to be selected for the World Cross Country Championships in Australia. All of my preparations focus on cross-country," Gelant told SABC Sport.

"But, before leaving for the event, we have a fitness test in a competition in Botswana on 18 January, and on 15 January, I will run the Dis-chem half-marathon in Bedfordview to see how far I am with my fitness."

The qualifying standards set by the World Athletics Federation for the Championships for the 5 000m is 13:07:00, with 10 000m at 27:10:00, and 2:09:40 for the marathon. 

Gelant remains the SA 5 000m record holder after clocking 13:04:88 back in May 2016, and is working hard to rediscover his old form, with a top-10 finish in Australia set to guarantee him automatic qualification to the world championships.

Should he fail to achieve qualification at the Cross Country Champs, he will try his luck in the marathon distance,

“For me, the big focus this year is to qualify for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, to take off the pressure of having to do it during the Olympic year," he added.

"The main focus is to work on my 5 000m and 10 000m [distances], and it will be a massive achievement to qualify for the world championships in Budapest later this year.

"The preparations are going well, and I have done base training since September last year after running the Joburg Run Your City 10km series. I focused a lot on my endurance in preparation for the world cross-country championships."

Athletics South Africa are yet to release the 2023 event calendar, but Gelant is already looking forward to participating in a couple of races.

"We have lots of competitions lined up, and the Absa Run Your City 10km Series, which has five legs, will be good for us, the runners, to run some fast times, especially with the Gqeberha leg and Durban leg added, which is usually fast," he said.

"I will also use the other competitions to try and qualify for the world championships in the 5 000m, 10 000m and marathon, and would choose one race if I qualify for the three events later in the year."

Gelant is also a full-time human resource officer at the University of North West in Potchefstroom, juggling his HR duties with athletics as he works from 8am to 4pm and then starts training at 5pm, using the university's facilities.

By Charles Baloyi