Stephen Mokoka (born 31 January 1985) is a South African

long-distance runner Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely Aerobic exercise, aerobic in nature and requires endurance, stamina as well as mental strength. Within e ...

who competes in races ranging from

3000 metres The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000m shoul ...

to the 50 km distance. He formerly held the 50 km world record. He is a four-time medalist at the

Universiade The Universiade is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a portmanteau of the words "University" and "Olympiad". The Universiade is referred t ...

and has represented South Africa internationally in

road A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

, cross country, and

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

events. He represented South Africa in the marathon at the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

Career

Stephen began competing internationally in 2005 and came ninth over

10,000 metres The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship level events. The race ...

at the

2005 Summer Universiade The 2005 Summer Universiade, also known as the XXIII Summer Universiade, took place in İzmir, Turkey, in August. Emblem The emblem is the letter “U”, inspired by the bird's-eye view of the Gulf of İzmir. This shape has perfectly fit the lett ...

. At the African student championships in 2006, he was third over

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stan ...

and finished as runner-up in the 10,000 m. He won back-to-back South African universities titles (2006/2007) and won his first global level medal at the

2007 Summer Universiade The 2007 Summer Universiade officially known as the XXIV Summer Universiade and commonly known as Bangkok Universiade, was an international Multi-sport event, multi-sport for university athletes that took place from 8 to 18 August 2007 in Bangkok, ...

, taking the

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

in the 10,000 m.Steven Mokoka
Tilastopaja. Retrieved on 2011-09-13. He gained his first senior international selections the following year, running at the

2008 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 2008 IAAF World Cross Country Championships took place on March 30, 2008. The races were held at the Holyrood Park in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Four races took place, one for men, women, junior men and junior women respectively. All races ...

and the

2008 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships The 2008 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships were held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 12 October 2008. This event was first announced as the 2008 IAAF World Road Running Championships, but in November 2007, the IAAF announced that the name of t ...

. He made significant improvements to his times in the 2009 season, including a 5000 m personal best of 13:44.22 min at the Yellow Pages

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

meeting and a 10,000 m track best of 28:48.73 min. He won the 10,000 m national title in March and then managed to finish in 32nd place at the

2009 IAAF World Cross Country Championships 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...

.Mokoka Stephen

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

. Retrieved on 2011-09-13. He also improved on the roads, taking the national 10K and

half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish or shortcu ...

titles with bests of 28:21 min and 61:26 min respectively. Having already won the

Two Oceans Half Marathon The Two Oceans Marathon is a 56 km / 35-mile ultramarathon and 21 km half-marathon held annually in Cape Town, South Africa on the Saturday of the Easter weekend. Known globally as "the world's most beautiful marathon",Hamlett, Alison ...

earlier that year, he established himself as a top level competitor at the

2009 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships The 2009 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships was held in Birmingham, United Kingdom on 11 October 2009. It was the final event of the International Association of Athletics Federations' 2009 World Athletics Series. Organisation The city of B ...

by coming in eighth place. At the 10-mile

Great South Run The Great South Run is an annual 10 mile (16.09 km) road running race which takes place in Portsmouth, United Kingdom providing an intermediate distance between the ten kilometre and the half marathon (21.097 km) runs. Launched in 1990 ...

in England, it came down to a sprint finish between

Mo Farah Sir Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah (born Hussein Abdi Kahin; 23 March 1983) is a British long-distance runner. His ten global championship gold medals (four Olympic and six World titles) make him the most successful male track distance runner ever ...

and himself. Although he lost by a margin of one second, he set a South African record of 46:26 min for the distance. In 2010, Mokoka retained his 10,000 m track and road national titles and improved upon his previous year's finish at the

2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships were held at Myślęcinek Park in Bydgoszcz, Poland on 28 March 2010. It was the first time in over twenty years that Poland hosted the annual championships, having previously held them in Warsaw i ...

, coming 22nd overall. He made his first outing over the

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

distance in November that year, running a time of 2:08:33 hours for fourth place at the JoongAng Seoul Marathon.Ke ntwana ya LAS Vegas He was one of the few runners to compete at both the

2011 African Cross Country Championships The 1st African Cross Country Championships was an international cross country running competition for African athletes which was held on 6 March 2011 in Cape Town, South Africa. Organised by the Confederation of African Athletics, it marked the ...

and the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

events, placing sixth at the continental level (second in the team rankings with South Africa) and fifteenth on the global stage. A month later he won the 10,000 m South African title in a personal best, was runner-up at the

Yangzhou Half Marathon The Yangzhou Jianzhen International Half Marathon ( Chinese: 扬州鉴真国际半程马拉松赛) is an annual road running competition over the half marathon distance which takes place in April in Yangzhou, People's Republic of China. The event ...

, then had his first sub-28-minute clocking to win the 10,000 m national universities title with a run of 27:56.18 min. He won the

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

in the 10,000 m at the

2011 Summer Universiade The 2011 Summer Universiade ( zh, c=2011年夏季世界大学生运动会, p=Èr líng yī yī Nián xiàjì shìjiè dàxuéshēng yùndònghuì), the XXVI Summer Universiade ( zh, c=第二十六届夏季世界大学生运动会, p=Dì Èrshíl ...

behind

Suguru Osako is a Japanese long-distance runner. He won the 10,000 metres gold medal at the 2011 Summer Universiade in Shenzhen and holds the Asian junior record for the half marathon. He held the Japanese National Record for the marathon of 2:05:29 set at th ...

and went on to make his world debut in the event at the

2011 World Championships in Athletics The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011. The United States topped the medal standings in th ...

, where he came thirteenth. He ended the year with his second marathon outing at the

Shanghai Marathon The Shanghai International Marathon is an annual marathon in late autumn hosted by Shanghai, China, since 1996. The marathon is categorized as a Platinum Label Road Race by World Athletics. The marathon starts at the ''Bund Bull'' and finishe ...

and was runner-up to Willy Kibor Koitile. Mokoka competed internationally in a range of distances in 2012. After winning the 10,000 m national title with a personal best of 27:40.73 minutes, he came eighth in the event at the

2012 African Championships in Athletics The 2012 African Championships in Athletics was held at the Stade Charles de Gaulle in Porto Novo, Benin from 27 June to 1 July 2012. It was the first time that Benin had hosted the event. Medal summary Men Women Medal table Participatin ...

. He was selected for the

South African Olympic team South Africa first participated at the Olympic Games in 1904, and sent athletes to compete in every Summer Olympic Games until 1960. After the passage of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1761 in 1962 in response to South Africa's policy ...

and ran in the

Olympic marathon The marathon at the Summer Olympics is the only road running event held at the multi-sport event. The men's marathon has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1896. Nearly ninety years later, the women's event was added to the pro ...

, although he came 49th overall. A half marathon best of 60:57 minutes came two weeks after in Cape Town and he went on to place eighth at the

2012 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships The 2012 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships was held in Kavarna, Bulgaria on 6 October 2012. Detailed reports on the event and an appraisal of the results were given. Complete results were published for the men's race, for the wome ...

. He closed off his year on the roads, winning the

10-miler with a run of 46:40 minutes and a fourth-place finish at the

in 2:09:43 in December. He made two international appearances in 2013: he ran both the 10,000 m and half marathon at the 2013 Universiade and won a gold and a silver medal, respectively. He was selected for the track event at the

2013 World Championships in Athletics The 14th IAAF World Championships in Athletics (Moscow 2013) () was an international athletics competition held in Moscow, Russia, from 10–18 August 2013. Initially, Russia won the most gold medals to top the table for the first time since 200 ...

and placed twentieth overall. He was also the South African champion in the 5000 m, 10,000 m, and half marathon. He attempted to defend his title at the Great South Run, but was outrun by Kenya's Emmanuel Bett. At the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, he competed in the

10,000 m The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship level events. The race ...

event. He finished in 18th place with a time of 27:54.57. In 2019, he competed in the men's marathon at the

2019 World Athletics Championships The 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships () was the seventeenth edition of the biennial, global athletics competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), since renamed World Athletics. It was held betw ...

held in Doha, Qatar. He finished in 5th place. In 2020, he won the men's race at the Granollers Half Marathon held in Granollers, Catalonia, Spain. He competed in the men's marathon at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

. On 6 March 2022, at the Nedbank Runified in

Gqeberha Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, So ...

, he set the 50 km world record with a time of two hours forty minutes thirteen seconds.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mokoka, Stephen 1985 births Living people South African male long-distance runners South African male marathon runners Olympic athletes of South Africa Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Commonwealth Games World Athletics Championships athletes for South Africa Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade gold medalists for South Africa Universiade silver medalists for South Africa Universiade bronze medalists for South Africa South African Athletics Championships winners Medalists at the 2007 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 2011 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 2013 Summer Universiade Commonwealth Games competitors for South Africa Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic male marathon runners 21st-century South African people 20th-century South African people