'I just need to keep doing what I'm doing' - George Kusche signals Comrades gold medal intentions with course record at Biogen 21k
- Mosibodi Whitehead
- 14 minutes ago
- 3 min read
For most track runners, the transition from middle distance to ultra marathons, can be a difficult one. But where dozens have failed, George Kusche is succeeding. After a productive college track career racing 1500m, Miles and 5000m for Northern Arizona on the highly competitive US College NCAA Circuit, the Affies Seuns alumnus is beginning to make waves on the even more competitive South African ultra marathon scene.
"It's a mindset shift. You have to change your mindset," he told #TheTopRunner. "When you prepare for shorter races you need to prepare you aerobic and anaerobic fitness, but for the ultras you need to run endurance. That’s the biggest factor. So you need to make that shift from being in peak fitness versus peak endurance. I know it sounds similar but it's vastly different."
The 27-year-old who is the holder of a 13:28.95 lifetime best over twelve and a half laps of track, enjoyed a fruitful 2025 road running season which included victory at the Irene 48km in 2:50:05, a 5:41:23 Comrades debut for twelfth position and an eye catching fourth place (2:20:48) at the Africanbank Soweto Marathon on 29 November.
"In 2025 I decided to race less but focus on the big races. So the big races for me were the Irene 48km at the beginning of the year which I used in preparation for Comrades. I was out for six weeks because I tore my ligaments in January but after that my Comrades preparation went as well as I think it could have. So I learnt a lot and then Soweto went well and since then I've remained consistent in my training," explained the man who set a 10km personal best of 28:56 at the 2024 Absa RUN YOUR CITY GQEBERHA 10K.
Picking up where he left off at the end of last year, the Nedbank Running Club top runner laid waste to quality field as the Green Machine swept the men’s podium at this morning’s notoriously hilly Biogen 21k in Bedfordview east of Johannesburg. Kusche crossed the finish line in 1:05:32, which was more than a minute clear of Lesotho's Namakoe Nkhasi (1:06:49) and third place Jackson Ole Koisenge of Kenya.
"I spent December doing long runs. Proper long runs. I haven’t touched speed yet. Today was a good indication that I've been training well. I was planning on remaining patient, to stick in the group until the last hill and then see what I could do. But at the first hill I felt good and no one wanted to come with me, so I just went for it. I thought they would catch me later on but nobody did," he said describing the dominant performance that saw him eclipse the 1:05:49 course record set by Onnalenna Khonkhobe in 2024.
Buoyed by his current fitness, the husband and father to a 15-month old toddler, is confident of finishing his first Up Run with his first gold medal at The Ultimate Human Race. Asked about how he balances it all, the man who works full-time as a data scientist says there is no secret to his success, believing that the hard work and shrewd time management that has got him this far, will serve him just as well on the 90km road from Durban to Pietermaritzburg on 14 June.
"It definitely gives me the confidence to target a gold medal at Comrades this year. Soweto was a good confidence boost for me because I just felt good for the whole 42km. The body wasn’t tired. So I'm positive that I don’t have to change my training. I just have to keep doing what I'm doing and hopefully it compounds naturally. There's no secret. You just need to go out and run for long, very slow and do it up and down hills. I'm really enjoying it because I like running and ultras give you the opportunity to run for long periods of time. I like it a lot. I’m excited for 2026!"
Comments