From Gingindlovu to Hawaii: Iron man Shange chases world champs dream

It is a long way from Gingindlovu near Eshowe in KwaZulu-Natal to Kailua-Kona, Hawaii in the US. But Sanele Shange has made that journey in style.

His is an incredible “rags-to-riches tale” even he could not have imagined not so long ago. But such are the rewards for dedication, hard-work and a never-say-die attitude that Shange is about to achieve what would have been considered unthinkable only a few years ago.

The first black South African to earn a podium position at a full Ironman event when he finished second in Gqeberha last year, Shange will this week make further history when he participates at the 2022 Ironman World Championship in Hawaii from Thursday to Saturday.

But he wants to do more than just participate.

“I want to test my limits to see if I can represent SA and make history there. I want to get medals. I want to be the first black South African to get on the podium in Kona. My first goal is to win my age category [25-30], but I also want to win the overall event. I will be competing in the amateur section. When I win, I will be the second one from SA after Donovan Dutch who won the amateur division last year.”

My goal going to Ironman was to show black South Africans that as long as you believe in yourself you can make it in anything. I wanted to show I could qualify for the world championships.

—  Sanele Shange

It is a highly ambitious goal for someone who has participated in just one Ironman event. Then again, Shange is no ordinary athlete.

This is a man who qualified for the World Championships in duathlon and triathlon in his maiden year (2018) in the sports. He did not go to both Switzerland and Spain because he could not raise the requisite money for the trips.

“It was painful missing out on those events. It got even worse when I was watching the championship on TV because the guy that I beat here was runner-up in the duathlon.”

When Shange qualified for both events in the next two years but again failed to make the trips, his coach — the revered SA triathlete Glen Gore — decided they should change tactics. “We then sat down and he said let’s switch to long distances like Ironman. If I tried to do that, maybe I could get exposure and the sponsors because it hurt him to see me qualifying for the worlds but not going. So, I started training for Ironman and then we got the entry into the event last year.”

That Shange had a thrilling race that elevated him to a national hero of sorts late last year will be common knowledge to the sport’s enthusiasts. He finished 11th overall and was runner-up in his 25 to 30 age category to Frenchman Antoine Bezault. He was the first black South African to achieve such a feat. Shange, whose swimming was not as good as his competitors, had come from behind but did well on the bike to push into the lead only to suffer severe cramps due to a poor fuelling strategy in the run, where he got overtaken.

“My goal going to Ironman was to show black South Africans that as long as you believe in yourself you can make it in anything. I wanted to show I could qualify for the world championships.”

Shange was excited, his face lighting up in our interview on the Durban’s North Beach promenade, that he was finally going to meet the man who inspired his love for triathlon in Hawaii, legendary Jan Frodeno of Germany. Frodeno won the Ironman World Championships three times, the Ironman 70.3 World Championship twice and was triathlon Olympic champion in 2008. “Ah Jan Frodeno, that’s my hero hey,”  Shange said. “Since I got into triathlon, it has been my dream to meet him and now it has come true. I can’t wait to shake his hand. But I will only do that after the race, not before.”

Shange has since arrived in Kona to the disappointing news Frodeno would not be participating. “Jan is not racing. He crashed on his bike while training,” he said via a text message on Monday.

This, though, will not dissuade the man, who has had to quit soccer and athletics when he was young due to “politics”, from going after his dream. “I am ready. I have three more days of training, and then we compete,” he messaged.

That a young black man from a rural town ended up taking up what is generally considered a white man’s sport given its expensive nature, was because Shange was disappointed in football and athletics. “I used to be a very good soccer player and I even made it to trials at Orlando Pirates. I scored three goals but they didn’t select me. I was, like, what more do they want me to do. I left soccer and focused on athletics.”

He did well in running, track and cross country to the extent he represented KwaZulu-Natal at national championships. He secured a scholarship to study at the University of Johannesburg in 2011, enrolling for a degree in Transportation Management. “Then the university took the money away from athletics and gave it to rugby and we were forced to pay for the academics from our own pocket. My family could not afford that, so I had to drop out.”

Going home he joined the famed Savages Athletics Club where the legendary Blanche Moila helped organise entry fees and running shoes for runners like Shange who could not afford them. It was a chance meeting with Savages club member Gail Babic at Kings Park swimming pool, where he was doing cross-training, that led him into the world of triathlon. “Gail saw me there and asked if I thought I could do a triathlon. I said I was mainly good at running but I could do it.”

Babic introduced Shange to her brother Gary and with his help, the young man took to the sport like a fish to water. Now the boy from Gingindlovu is about to participate in the grandest of all triathlons.