Enjoying a solitary lead in the last seven kilometres, the 31-year-old Mokoka clocked 2:10:18 to take a commanding victory. Although his time was 2:38 shy of his personal best of 2:07:40 when he finished second there last year and was the slowest winning mark since 2012, Mokoka was satisfied with his performance.
“It is my third time winning here. So I am very happy even if the time is not very fast,” he said. “I hope next year I will be able to come here again.”
It is the sixth consecutive year that Mokoka has competed in Shanghai. After third and fourth place finishes in 2011 and 2012 respectively, the South African took consecutive victories in 2013 and 2014. However, he was outraced last year by Kenya’s Paul Lonyangata, who set the course record of 2:07:14, and had to settle for the runner-up spot.
The victory made Mokoka the second man to collect three wins in the race’s 21-year history. Ethiopia’s Gashaw Asfaw also achieved the feat with three victories in a row from 2008 to 2010.
Running under cloudy conditions with the temperature ranging from 13C to 18C, a leading group of three men, including Mokoka, Kenya’s Asbel Kipsang and Ethiopia’s Abdi Fufa, paced the race from the 15km mark in 46:01, and hit 20km in 1:00:39 and 30km in 1:32:15.
Soon after the 30km mark, Fufa was the first to fall back while Kipsang managed to keep up with Mokoka for another five kilometres before the South African pulled away to forge ahead for the win.
