Cape's young 'Zola' stuns senior runners
May 06, 2003 Edition -1
Ian Sadler
She is 14, thinner than a pencil, runs barefoot and goes like the wind.
And when Magdalena - or Lena as she prefers to be called - Lötter cruised across the line almost a minute ahead of the next woman in Saturday's 10km road race on the slopes of Table Mountain, nobody had a clue who she was.
Everyone had good reason for being in the dark because it was Lötter's maiden race on the road and first over the distance.
The experienced Nomvuyisi Seti reckoned she was in the lead, thinking the skinny, barefoot kid that zoomed past her in the other direction after the turn on the Tafelberg Road was a boy.
When race commentator Harold Berman, who is seldom at a loss for leading runners' names, saw Lötter break the tape he was speechless.
"That doesn't happen often, I usually know the winners; she had me stumped," said Berman.
Valda Ford of the Varsity Old Boys club is a regular top five finisher in local road races and came in behind Seti was as surprised. "The first time I saw her was after the turn; to run 37 on that course was excellent... from the start she was gone."
Although she was first across the line, Lötter was not declared the winner. WP road running rules stipulate juniors must be at least 15.
It's a situation that reminded Berman of a similar incident at the Voet (of Africa) half-marathon about 23 years ago.
"Elana Meyer (then Van Zyl) won that race but she was disqualified because she was only 13 at the time.
"But they were first across the line and nobody can take that away from them," said Berman.
Lötter, a grade nine pupil at Jan van Riebeeck High School in the city, covered the undulating 10km course in 37 minutes 53 seconds. The only runners - of the 643 that completed the race - ahead of her were 26 men.
It was a few of those men who inadvertently gave the teenager an extra edge at the start.
"My mom said I should stand at the front and just before the gun went off some of the men looked at me and said kids should be at the back. I didn't say anything, but just thought to myself: 'Yyou shouldn't underestimate children'."
Those men, though, soon realised their folly as the 42kg kid with legs like matchsticks surged away into the early morning light. The girl has a huge heart and powerful motor.
"After a while the men were telling me to keep my pace and that the next women was way back."
About 40 metres of Saturday's race went over a gravel section just after the 5km when the course did a U-turn.
"It hurt my feet a little, but I didn't think about it. Sometimes I train in shoes when the surface is bad, but I've never raced cross-country wearing shoes."
The barefeet and waif-like appearance are reminders of a another South African athlete's early career.
"There have been times when I'm running with my family that people shout out 'Zola Budd', but all I know is she was a good runner who also didn't wear shoes," recalled Lötter soon after arriving home from school yesterday. She had had little time to reflect on her win. Monday she does the first of two weekly ballet classes.
Then there's piano lessons, hockey, tennis, swimming... as well as school.
And she doesn't excel only at running. Two years ago Lötter won a gold medal for a piano piece at an eisteddfod.
The Lötters - mom, dad and four children - are an active lot. "It's part of our lifestyle," said Lötter's mother Hanlie, who coaches her daughter and "ages ago" ran cross-country and track for Western Province.
In 1976 Hanlie Oosthuizen competed against the likes of Sigrid Walters, Sonia Laxton and Aneen de Jager, who around that time was a national 800m champion.
These days mom Lötter coaches the Van Riebeeck High cross-country team, and besides daughter Lena, has guided about six children who have won WP colours.
"We've made a bit of an exception with her mother coaching, but they have a good relationship, and it makes a change - parents don't usually get involved," said Van Riebeeck's head of sport Chuck Bester.
"It's quite amazing, when you look at her, that she beat all the women on Saturday.
"She's been a good runner, and that thin, since primary school. Lena certainly has a fast metabolism."
Lötter's mother confirmed the teacher's observation.
"Lena never stops eating, but it's all healthy stuff. She's a health freak... all day it's raw carrots, fruit...
"She also bakes her own bread, an old recipe of mine - that's full of nutrition."
Besides recipes, Lötter's habit of leaving her shoes at home comes from her mother.
"We all go around barefoot, it must be an extension of my life growing up on a farm," said Hanlie, who recalled her daughter decided earlier this year to try out on the road and give cross-country a miss.
"She trains twice a week and did 8km a couple of times for Saturday's race.
"I thought she might win, that's why I advised her to start at the front."
With the best advice and excellent genes, Lötter can hardly go wrong.
"Lena grew up in a running household," says dad Willem, himself a better-than-average athlete who also ran on Saturday and finished 10 minutes behind his daughter. "So I didn't make the newspapers and two years ago I would never have imagined being beaten by my daughter.
"In fact I'm the only one in the family that doesn't have provincial colours for running."
Youngest sister Martha, 10, and brothers Frederick and Ernest, 18, have all run cross-country for Province.
The eldest, Frederick, 21, gave sport a miss at school but in his first year at Stellenbosch University made the Boland cross-country team.
"I think it was just to prove he could also do it," said Willem Lötter.
Is Lena Lötter South Africa's next Budd or Meyer?
"At the moment I really enjoy running because I'm good... maybe I'll do it seriously," said Lötter, while her mother predicted Lena would follow in the footsteps of her two brothers and study engineering.
