'I want to qualify and get a great position there' - Maxime Chaumeton confident of securing maiden World Champs birth after 5000m PB

After initially struggling when he first started competing overseas in 2021, Maxime Chaumeton has found his groove on the highly competitive European track and road running circuits. The 24-year-old is in the middle of a profitable 2025 season which has thus far included a 13:13 5km SA Record, set in Japan on 3 May and a 13:19.66 5000m lifetime best which he ran in France on 7 June. Chaumeton credits his coach Hendrick Ramaala who himself enjoyed a successful road running career in Europe and the United States, for guiding him.

"I think it's a maturity thing," he told #TheTopRunner. "You start by having these wild dreams that you are gonna make it immediately, but you have to build slowly. Coach Hendrick always told me that progression is the key. Now that it's starting to come together, I understand that it's a season-based thing. You run your European cross country season early in the year. You then come back and do your track season in SA, which sets you up for the European track season in their summer and then you go to the road and have a bit of fun."

Chaumeton celebrates victory in the 5000m at the 2025 Athletics South Africa (ASA) Senior Track & Field Championships in Potchefstroom. Photo Credit: Central Gauteng Athletics (CGA) Media.

"I spoke to coach Hendrick and Stephen Mokoka quite a bit because I like to learn from the older guys," he added. "Mokoka once said that you should target a few races and hit them hard and if it doesn’t work then you come back, train and go again. So those are the mistakes I made early in my career, going to Europe. I was packing too much into one trip without having a real goal and then you just end up going to race after race and you get tired."

It's a strategy that has worked because in addition to the 5km and 5000m personal bests set in Asia and Europe, Chaumeton has been in good form locally, using the shorter distances to set him up for rich pickings over twelve and a half laps of the track. The University of Johannesburg graduate ran a 1:52.09 800m career best at the Germiston Stadium in February and then followed that up with a 3:43.50 1500m clocking altitude three weeks later, which was just over a second outside a lifetime best set at sea level four years ago.

The litmus test for those early season middle distance races, was the 5000m final at the Athletics South Africa (ASA) Senior Track and Field Championships, where Chaumeton produced an upset as he ran 13:44.53 in Potchefstroom to beat Olympic 10 000m top ten finisher and SA 10km Record holder Adriaan Wildschutt to win the national title. Armed with the best form of his life, the first South African to deliver a sub 28 minute 10km on home soil is confident that he can represent the country well at his first World Championships in Tokyo in September. 

"I've never been to a World Championships on the track. That's the goal - to qualify for that and then target a great position there in the 5000m. The goal is to just qualify and then along the way you're gonna target some of the records as well," he smiled.