Profile: Thabiso Moqhali

Legend
Thabiso Moqhali

Thabiso Moqhali is one of Lesotho’s greatest ever athletes.

He was born Thabiso Paul Moqhali on 7 December 1967.

His achievements include winning the Belgrade Marathon in April 2000.

Moqhali began as an 800 metres runner and competed at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland in the event.

After the 1986 Commonwealth Games, Moqhali was recruited to run for a South African mining club in the then Orange Free State.

He worked as a recreation officer in Welkom and drove home every weekend to Mazenod to train.

The advantage of Mazenod was that its running trails were situated at well over 3000 metres, higher than in Welkom.

Moqhali worked his way up through the 5000 and 10 000 metres and he ran his first marathon at the South African championships in 1989. He finished third in a time of 2 hours, 12 minutes and 30 seconds (2:10:30).

He competed at the 1992 London Marathon and there he set his personal best time of 2:10:55 hours.

His finest hour came at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He won gold in the marathon in a time of 2:19:15 hours. It remains Lesotho’s only gold medal at a major international Games.