LIKE FATHER LIKE SON:
Athletics is in the Genes for Cape Town Multi-Record Breaker Winner Author: Myolisi Gophe
A
s a boy growing up in the Eastern Cape town of Mqanduli, Lindikhaya “Leeds” Mthangayi was often told by adults that he would never match the high-level athletic talents of his late father. Mthangayi set out to prove them wrong, not only pursuing the sport that his dad loved, but excelling in it as well. “People used to tell me that my father was specialising in the 1 500m and 800m races, and that he would have beaten me hands down. Well I’m his flesh and blood, and I got the running genes from him – and I wish he was still alive to see himself that he would never out-run me.”
Mthangayi started athletics at school when he was fifteen years old. After matric he decided to focus on athletics as a career and turned professional in 2001 – and since then, the magnitude of his achievements speak for themselves, as he continues to break record after record in Western Province Athletics Association events, even as he enters his forties. Just last year, Mthangayi, who is registered with the Cape Town-based Nedbank Athletics Club and is also a Khayelitsha pastor, completed the Fast and Flat 10km in a speedy 29 minutes and 52 seconds. In the process he managed to beat the veteran record (30:31) Gert Thys set up in Goodwood five years earlier. It was the first time that an athlete in the veteran
CAPE AT 6 SPORT
18
