{"id":5648,"date":"2021-11-09T10:43:17","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T10:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/an-olympics-debut-for-sensational-khatala"},"modified":"2021-11-09T11:35:41","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T11:35:41","slug":"an-olympics-debut-for-sensational-khatala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/an-olympics-debut-for-sensational-khatala","title":{"rendered":"An Olympics debut for sensational Khatala"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>\u2018Neheng Khatala will be making her first appearance at the approaching Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan \u2013 thanks to her coach Andrew Booyens and husband Khoarahlane Seutloali\u2019s support and confidence in her.<\/p>\n

The 28-years-old Lesotho long-distance runner\u2019s never-say-die spirit finally paid-off last Sunday as she won the Retail Capital Langa Marathon in 2:28:06 in Cape Town, South Africa, to realise her dream of competing at the Olympics.<\/p>\n

Khatala is now Lesotho\u2019 second athlete to qualify for the Tokyo Olympic Games after her husband, Seutloali, who booked his ticket to the global multi-sporting event in japan as the country\u2019s first in 2019. Just like his wife, Seutloali also qualified while running in Cape Town where he finished the Sanlam Marathon in 2:11:04.<\/p>\n

Khatala, who runs for the Pietermaritzburg based-club, Save Orion, said she kept on training hard even during the COVID-19 lockdown, because she never gave up on her dream to book a place at the Tokyo Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very excited,\u201d said Khatala in an interview with Public Eye on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been working hard for this. I kept training even during the lockdown.<\/p>\n

\u201d Khatala further said: \u201cI never gave up but rather pushed myself hard because I always believed that I would eventually make it to the upcoming Tokyo Olympic Games once athletic activities resume.<\/p>\n

The former Nedbank team runner also gave credit to her South African coach, Booyens, whom she said played a big role in her qualification for the Olympics.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy coach kept on encouraging me that I should focus on training hard so that I could perform well when the athletics season returns to action.<\/p>\n

\u201d Khatala again said the fact that her husband had already qualified was another reason for her to push herself hard so that she could also qualify.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband also kept on encouraging me, and also the fact that he had already qualified was another reason for me to push myself harder.<\/p>\n

\u201d Khatala recalled that she kept telling her husband that she would qualify and go together with him to the Olympics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also think what also helped me was the fact that I told myself that I would try hard despite having a very short time to qualify.<\/p>\n

\u201d Khatala further said: \u201cIt was tough for me to achieve that with a very short time to qualify.<\/p>\n

But I told myself that if I managed to finish my first marathon in 2:41:00 and then later clocked in 2:33:00 to break my first record by almost 9 minutes.<\/p>\n

I could as well manage to make 2:29:00, being an international standard qualification for the Olympics for a female marathoner, and I made 2:28:06. \u201d The Tokyo Olympic Games have been rescheduled from July 23 to August 8 after being postponed previously due to the COVID-19 lockdown.<\/p>\n

Khatala had also qualified for the African Senior Championships before, but this paper has learned that she\u2019s no longer going to compete at the championships since she qualified for the Olympics.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been advised by her technical team to withdraw her from the African Senior Championships so that she could be able to focus on her preparation for the Tokyo Olympic Games,\u201d said the Secretary General of the Lesotho Athletics Federation (LAF) Makara Thibinyane.<\/p>\n

Khatala on her part said she would start preparations for the Tokyo Olympic Games next week. \u201cI must launch a serious preparation after a seven days rest,\u201d she said. None of Lesotho athletes has won an Olympic medal since the country began to participate at the Olympics in 1972.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. \u2018Neheng Khatala will be making her first appearance at the approaching Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan \u2013 thanks to her coach Andrew Booyens and husband Khoarahlane Seutloali\u2019s support and confidence in her. The 28-years-old Lesotho long-distance runner\u2019s never-say-die spirit finally paid-off last Sunday as she won the Retail Capital Langa Marathon in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":5647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17,16],"tags":[233,246,1110,245,264],"class_list":["post-5648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-khatala","tag-lesotho","tag-olympics"],"yoast_head":"\nAn Olympics debut for sensational Khatala - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u2018Neheng Khatala will be making her first appearance at the approaching Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan \u2013 thanks to her coa ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/an-olympics-debut-for-sensational-khatala\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Olympics debut for sensational Khatala\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u2018Neheng Khatala will be making her first appearance at the approaching Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan \u2013 thanks to her coa ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/an-olympics-debut-for-sensational-khatala\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-09T10:43:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-09T11:35:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/11\/img-618a5cf25584d.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1096\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"617\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/an-olympics-debut-for-sensational-khatala#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/an-olympics-debut-for-sensational-khatala\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"An Olympics debut for sensational Khatala\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-09T10:43:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-09T11:35:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/an-olympics-debut-for-sensational-khatala\"},\"wordCount\":597,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/an-olympics-debut-for-sensational-khatala#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/11\/img-618a5cf25584d.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Khatala\",\"Lesotho\",\"Olympics\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/an-olympics-debut-for-sensational-khatala#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/an-olympics-debut-for-sensational-khatala\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/an-olympics-debut-for-sensational-khatala\",\"name\":\"An Olympics debut for sensational Khatala - 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