Helalia Johannes – ‘born to run’

HELALIA Johannes has underlined her status as one of the world’s top long distance runners after some brilliant performances this year.

Although now 38 years old, she is starting to reach her full potential and fulfil her great promise that she has shown over the past decade.

After making history by becoming Namibia’s first female gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games last year, she has raised the bar even further by smashing three Namibian records this year.

On 10 March she beat a top class international field to win the Nagoya Marathon in Japan in a new Namibian record time of two hours 22 minutes 25 seconds.

That time smashed her previous Namibian record time of 2:26:09 that she set at the 2012 Olympic Games, and to date is also the eighth fastest marathon time in the world this year.

A month later, she won the Two Oceans Half Marathon in Cape Town, breaking her own long-standing record of 1:11:56 by more than a minute with a new time of 1:10:30.

And last weekend she was at it again when she won the Spar Women’s 10km race in Port Elizabeth in a new course record time of 31:50, which also smashed her own Namibian record of 32:28 that had stood for 12 years.

Her recent success comes off the back of her Commonwealth Games gold medal at the Gold Coast in Australia last year and during an interview this week, she revealed that a burning desire and a sense of unfinished business had driven her to victory.

“At the previous Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014, I was leading when I got an injury after 27km. I had to slow down and eventually finished fifth, but I was so disappointed and from then on I was determined to be well prepared at the next Commonwealth Games, so that I could finish off the job that I was supposed to do in Glasgow,” she said.

With that achievement she became the first Namibian woman to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games and the fourth Namibian overall. The others were boxer Jonas Junias who also won gold last year; sprinter Frank Fredericks who won two gold medals at the 1994 games in Victoria, Canada and the 2002 games in Manchester, England; and remarkably, her own husband, boxer Jafet Uutoni who won gold in Melbourne, Australia in 2006.

“It was a great moment when I was on the podium and received my medal – it meant a lot to me, because I had also made history and I was very excited,” she said.

That, though, was just a taste of things to come as she went on a record breaking spree over the next 12 months.

In September last year she won the Cape Town Marathon in a new course record of 2:29:28, and it was this performance that made her coach Robert Kaxuxuena realise that she could go even faster.

“When my coach saw my shape at the Cape Town Marathon last year he told me that I could break my personal best time, because it was not an easy course. So our whole training group worked harder and it has paid dividends, because one of our athletes, Reinhold Thomas also set a new personal best time of 2:14:12 at the Hamburg Marathon last week to qualify for the World Athletics Championships,” she said.

In top shape

By the time the Nagoya Marathon arrived, Johannes was in top shape and ready to cause an upset against a strong field that included former Olympic Games 5 000m gold medallist Meseret Defar of Ethiopia.

“When I went to Japan I was not scared of anything, because I was in good shape and my coach was confident that I could do well. It was a very strong field and many of the athletes had personal best times that were faster than mine, but I was not worried – I just wanted to do my best,” she said.

Johannes went with the leading group from the start and although the pace was very fast, she felt comfortable.

“It was a very fast race and we reached the half way mark in one hour 11 minutes, but I was feeling comfortable with the pace. Later Defar and two Kenyans broke away to take the lead, but I was listening to my body and did not feel comfortable to attack then. So I just maintained the same pace and then at the 36km mark I started catching them and by the 39km mark I took the lead and went ahead on my own,” she said.

“It was a big surprise to win the race, even though I knew that I had prepared well, so I was very excited. It was a huge performance to win such a big event, so it meant a lot to me,” she said.

Her great form continued when she won the Two Oceans Half Marathon on 20 April, once again in a new record time.

“It meant a lot to me to break my own record in Cape Town. I always wanted to go back, but I couldn’t due to various reasons, so it was great to go back after eight years and break the record again,” she said.

With her latest triumph in Port Elizabeth last weekend, Johannes is now in the form of her life, and more success could be in store as she prepares for the World Athletics Championships in Doha in October and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. The reserved Johannes, though, is not one for making bold predictions.

“I cannot make empty promises. I cannot say I’m going to get a medal, because there are so many athletes from all over the world who are also preparing for the same thing, so all I can say is I’m just going to do my best.”

Johannes, who will be competing at her fourth Olympics in Tokyo, is now without a doubt Namibia’s most successful athlete since the retirement of Frank Fredericks in 2004. The success, though, hasn’t gone to her head as she pushes herself harder to reach more goals.

“What I have achieved has not changed my character, I’m still the same. My main aim is to continue getting good results so that I can leave a legacy when I retire.

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