Dennis Mbelenzi keeps talented teens at bay
There were 40 seconds and about three decades separating the first two athletes home in the Axa XL Man on the Run 5k on Sunday morning.
Talented teenager Sanchez Smith, 15, forced the 43-year-old Dennis Mbelenzi to turn on the afterburners early when attempting to make a quick start but the veteran runner took up the running after 1.6km of the 5km distance before distancing his young opponent.
Mbelenzi has recently made a return to the local running scene after moving back to the island long-term and he is getting used to the new faces coming up to challenge him.
I got challenged especially within the first mile and a half by Sanchez,” said Mbelenzi, who crossed the line in 16min 42sec.
“I was very impressed with him as a 15-year-old. Seeing a group of about 15 young men ahead of me, I couldn’t just let them go early as I didn’t know who was ahead of me.
“The same happened on Labour Day and two of them were gone so today I did not want to get caught out. I came to this race not absolutely fresh and I’m using these shorter distances for VO2 max workouts and to get some speed into the legs.”
Mbelenzi is now the Canadian Masters Marathon champion after winning the 40-49 age group at the Toronto Marathon last month and he feels he has rediscovered his motivation now he knows he is eligible for the Bermuda Half-Marathon Derby in May.
“Having not been allowed to run May 24 for a few years, I lost my motivation to run,” Mbelenzi said.
“When you have that doubt and a lack of big goal you stop pushing yourself. But I’m back on the island and eligible to compete in May 24 if the rules stay the same.
“That is my reason to start working harder and it is a special race with huge significance and I will be coming ready. I will do the Triangle Challenge in January and then build my focus.”
Runner-up Smith stopped the clock in 17:29 ahead of another top teenage talent in Dylan Eiselt and admitted that he did not know of Mbelenzi before speaking with him at the end of the race
“It feels pretty good to be second and I didn’t know of Dennis before today,” Smith said.
“He came flying past me after the first mile and I tried to stick with him, but he just wouldn’t slow down.”
Smith has some big targets ahead on his horizon and hopes to compete for Bermuda on one of the greatest stages of all in 2026.
“I’m a triathlete and I’ve just moved up into the sprint distance,” he said.
“The run at the sprint distance is 5K, so I do a lot of these races just to get myself used to that.
“I’ve done three Cariftas but my main goal is to try to qualify for the Youth Olympics, which is taking place in Dakar in Africa next year.
“To do that I have to go to a qualifying race down in Barbados in February. The qualifying timing is weird is the only way to make it is by finishing within a certain time of the athlete who wins.”
1 Dennis Mbelenzi 0:16:42
2 Sanchez Smith 0:17:29
3 Dylan Eiselt 0:18:32
4 Spencer Haldeman 0:18:56
5 Miles Smith 0:19:05
6 Philip Woollins 0:19:23
7 Craig Munden 0:19:26
8 Ben Adolph 0:19:29
9 Nazir Johnson 0:19:49
10 Will Green 0:19:53
11 Will Ellison 0:20:10
12 Nicolás Gómez Caines 0:20:16
13 D Elliot Simons 0:20:19
14 Jonah MacGuinness 0:20:24
15 Brandon Morris 0:20:27
16 Numair Khan 0:20:29
17 Adam Cenzer 0:20:39
18 Shawn Simons 0:20:39
19 Jarred Jones 0:20:39
20 Jonathan Cox 0:20:52
21 Michael Kravets 0:20:58
22 Jack Morrow 0:21:01
23 Eugene Simmons 0:21:04
24 Liam Horrobin 0:21:07
25 Jarryd Ray 0:21:24
26 Matthew Hoey 0:21:29
27 Matthew Cropper 0:21:36
28 Joseph Bordonaro 0:21:39
29 Ronan Davidge 0:21:42
30 John Thompson 0:21:43
31 Neil MacGuinness 0:21:49
32 Oliver Thompson 0:21:57
33 Forrest Chris Nusum 0:22:07
34 Tanaaj Thorpe 0:22:15
35 Henry Paddison 0:22:17
36 Rodrigue Guimeya 0:22:22
37 Denis Wampande 0:22:22
38 Joseph Rukeeba Tushabe 0:22:24
39 James Fielding 0:22:29
40 Romeo Hall 0:22:47
41 Jack McHale 0:22:47
42 David Todd 0:22:51
43 Daniel Ritchie 0:22:53
44 Alex McManus 0:22:57
45 Matthew Hagerty 0:22:58
46 McQuinn Burch 0:23:00
47 Ciaran Russell 0:23:03
48 Che’Quan Richardson 0:23:07
49 Thomas Twilley 0:23:13
50 Dominique Mayho 0:23:15
51 Gerald Mareri 0:23:20
52 Keishon Wilson 0:23:24
53 Mark Hewitt 0:23:24
54 Renz Kevin Tumangan 0:23:32
55 Jermiah Steede 0:23:40
56 Anton Doloricon 0:23:41
57 Jason Shrubb 0:23:43
58 Andrew Kirkpatrick 0:23:44
59 Brendan Stones 0:23:48
60 Harlo Robinson 0:23:50
61 Jimmy Caplice 0:23:52
62 Asa Trew-Smith 0:23:58
63 Jadon Lightbourne 0:24:02
64 Cameron Tully 0:24:02
65 Patrick Bousfield 0:24:03
66 Derek Thomas 0:24:04
67 Gavin O’Connor 0:24:17
68 Luke Stirling 0:24:25
69 Christopher Blake 0:24:27
70 Keino Williams 0:24:30
71 Leonard Shawa 0:24:36
72 Christopher Osborne 0:24:37
73 Amaury Majors 0:24:38
74 James Webster 0:24:48
75 Sebastian Round 0:24:49
76 Hasan Khan 0:24:57
77 Gustavo Navarrete Méndez 0:24:57
78 Elijah Simmons 0:25:02
79 Daniel Andrade 0:25:10
80 David Friston 0:25:11
81 Shivam Nayyar 0:25:14
82 Paulo Medeiros 0:25:15
83 Chayce Minors-Buttefield 0:25:23
84 Frederick Steede 0:25:29
85 Carlos Frias 0:25:37
86 Jamel Viray 0:25:39
87 Andrew Kemp 0:25:54
88 Idris Smith 0:25:56
89 Kenneth Wangaruro 0:26:07
90 Nico Wystrach 0:26:12
91 Adrian Cunningham 0:26:14
92 Andrew Charlesworth 0:26:15
93 Kevin Pacheco 0:26:17
94 Aaron Lugo Jr 0:26:19
95 Casano Dickinson 0:26:28
96 Codaey Brown 0:26:32
97 Darren Street 0:26:35
98 Will Leigh 0:26:52
99 Mark Dunny 0:26:54
100 Andreas Walther 0:26:54
101 Tim Figureido 0:26:55
102 Kevin Davies 0:26:57
103 Isandah Kokello 0:27:02
104 Mark Jordan 0:27:02
105 Benjamin Bernau 0:27:05
106 Julian Fletcher 0:27:16
107 Michael Simmons 0:27:20
108 Russel De Guia 0:27:23
109 Louie Cuarentas 0:27:23
110 Shawn Hassell 0:27:25
111 John Nusum 0:27:26
112 Tom Johansmeyer 0:27:29
113 Steve Horton 0:27:37
114 Jeevan Khatri 0:27:38
115 Frank Ming 0:27:43
116 Steven Ortiz 0:27:47
117 David Ocen 0:28:06
118 Jose Andrade 0:28:06
119 Paul Trew 0:28:13
120 Brian McGonagle 0:28:18
121 Allan Young 0:28:22
122 David Mwangi 0:28:23
123 Jovica Misljen 0:28:24
124 Sergio Edness 0:28:32
125 Jamal Anderson 0:28:40
126 Antoine Daniels 0:28:40
127 J.C. Ondoy 0:28:43
128 Joseph Twilley 0:28:48
129 Matthew Twilley 0:28:48
130 Chris Cooper 0:29:18
131 Samson Douglas 0:29:31
132 Daniel Calaor 0:29:43
133 Calvin Steede 0:29:45
134 Gadafi Semakula 0:30:02
135 Philip Karp 0:30:05
136 Charlie Law 0:30:47
137 Oliver Mungo 0:30:50
138 Magic Boyles0:30:51
139 Lorenzo Burch 0:30:51
140 Vince Hunt 0:30:51
141 Khymai Richards 0:30:52
142 Kieran Bowling 0:30:55
143 Mark Lombardi 0:30:59
144 Kyle Deroza 0:31:03
145 Parth Kanwar 0:31:07
146 Shaun Decouto 0:31:42
147 Howard Williams 0:31:45
148 Christopher Douglas 0:31:46
149 Jacob Stewart 0:31:56
150 David Stewart 0:31:57
151 Toby Walsh 0:32:08
152 Michael Walsh 0:32:09
153 Roy Araño 0:32:14
154 Antoine Jackson 0:32:17
155 Simon Joseph 0:32:33
156 Bisengi Gatare 0:32:38
157 Jesse Haldeman 0:32:40
158 Michael Mello Jr 0:33:04
159 Oliver Barton 0:33:10
160 Keith Chiappa 0:33:27
161 Holger Eiselt 0:33:31
162 Duncan Kiptum 0:33:32
163 Rickai Lightbourne 0:33:43
164 Frederick Barton 0:33:55
165 Roderick Nesbitt 0:34:15
166 Ian Hind 0:34:22
167 Lukas Eiselt 0:34:25
168 Christopher Jones 0:34:29
169 Larry Mussenden 0:34:40
170 Tarik Smith 0:36:06
171 Jevon Williams 0:36:58
172 Gary Stockley 0:37:36
173 Orion Roberts 0:37:41
174 Chuck Morgan 0:37:48
175 David McHugh 0:37:49
176 Graeme Bird 0:37:50
177 Christopher Rodrigues 0:37:50
178 Christopher Hardy 0:38:10
179 Michael Berlis 0:38:33
180 Jonathan Makanjuola 0:39:18
181 David Ugwuozor 0:39:19
182 Fitzgerald Williams 0:41:20
183 Kwame Tucker 0:42:03
184 Leonard Wakuruwarewa 0:42:35
185 Paulo Izaguirre 0:43:20
186 Alexander Knight 0:44:48
187 Robert Nielsen 0:48:17
188 Ernest Peets Jr 0:59:49
189 Kevin Minors 1:09:39
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