Mangusho edges Hhawu in 10K

Savannah Bridge Run:

Mangusho edges Hhawu in road race between former teammates

Savannah State student follows Tybee win with 10K victory at Bridge Run By BRADLEY A. HUEBNER

Savannah Morning News assistant sports editor

Posted: Sunday, May 02, 1999

Samuel Mangusho and Mark Hhawu came around the final turn on Habersham Street locked together like their neighboring African countries.

Just 70 yards of moist pavement and chilly mist remained in front in Saturday's 10-Kilometer Savannah Bridge Run. The other 2,100 registered runners, 1,591 of whom finished, had been cut from the chase after the opening 70 yards.

Mangusho and Hhawu ran in tandem toward a goal that rightfully belonged to either.

Just last year they were training partners at the Savannah International Training Center (SITC). They were friends, fellow Africans.

Everything appeared equal with 70 yards remaining. The runners strode in syncopation. Their loping legs hydroplaned over the course, each worried only about the other. From the outset, the damp race had no darkhorse.

The leaders ran as if their habits forced them back together, the way water droplets separate then reconfigure on a cold, metal sheet.

Hhawu, 21, was the second-youngest of eight children. Mangusho, 21, was the oldest of eight children.

Hhawu's was a family of farmers from the hills of Tanzania. Mangusho's parents were in the military and taught their Ugandan children to farm.

Hhawu came to the United States at 17 to chase and eventually realize his dream of running in the Olympics.

At 17, Mangusho lost his father to rebels in a murderous raid. At 17 and a few months, he lost his mother to rebels in a murderous raid.

At 17, Samuel Mangusho became a father and a mother to eight children. The youngest was a baby.

Therein lay the difference Saturday. Therein lay the fuel for a finishing kick. Therein lay the separation of two otherwise kindred spirits.

Hhawu badly wanted to win. It was almost expected by his SITC peers.

Mangusho had to win. It was depended upon by his family.

Mangusho left Hhawu so far behind him down the stretch -- three seconds, put precisely -- that you could forget the two had been inhaling the same oxygen molecules for six miles.

Mangusho finished in 30:43, Hhawu in 30:46. Richard McCurdy of Louisville, Ky., was next two minutes later.

"I wanted to make a good finish, so it was no problem," Mangusho said of his late kick. "I just moved and I found myself leading. I really prepared for this race."

His preparation was as lonely has his final 50 yards. Since leaving the SITC in January, Mangusho has enrolled at Savannah State University and trains with teammates and by himself. He runs behind teammates on bicycles, and takes to the solitary road at dawn, before class.

After recreation classes, Mangusho goes to the SSU track to watch former SITC teammates like Hhawu. He watches them; they don't get to see him run.

"I knew he was pretty strong," Hhawu said Saturday. "But he didn't want to break out (of the two-man pack). He was maybe expecting me to go out. I tried to go, I ran all the way. To me, I just felt that he could help a little bit to take a pace. But he didn't."

Hhawu, visibly upset at himself, had planned to draft behind Mangusho to conserve energy. But Mangusho drafted behind Hhawu.

Hhawu led most of the time but never could put much distance between him and Mangusho. He heard the reported midpoint time: 15:50. It was well off the pace of the race's record time of 30:16.

Hhawu clung to the false security of a modest lead but brooded over the breathing behind him.

By the time Hhawu turned the corner on Habersham, he had already come to terms with his conservative tactical error and his second-place fate.

"I was just thinking that if he had a good kick," said Hhawu, "he was going to win."

Mangusho celebrated his victory by draping the Ugandan flag round him and cooling down with a jog back to the Talmadge Bridge. He thought back to his record-time victory in the Tybee Half Marathon in February. After that victory, the Uganda Sports Press Association named him the "best sports person for the month of February."

What would this victory bring?

It at least legitimized his decision to train with Savannah State University and Coach Ted Whitaker. It protected his new training methods from the criticism that they were no better -- and in fact not as good -- as the old ones.

Yes, there was pressure. Yes, he prevailed. But, no, it wasn't the most importance race of his life. He won that race in Uganda.

"He prayed to God that if He let him win that race, and he would train his hardest," said Mangusho's Savannah host mother Terri Wheeler, "he would use the money to build a house for his family. And that's exactly what he did."

Three rooms for a family of eight.

No parents.

No kitchen.

No phone.

"He can call the elementary school where his siblings go and (the school officials) can run to the village where (the family) lives and they can call back in 10 minutes," says Wheeler, whose husband Spencer is an orthopedic surgeon.

"It's amazing," she said. "It's like nothing we've ever experienced. It introduces us to a whole new world."

Second class is one thing. Second place is another.

Mangusho can live above both.

SAMUEL MANGUSHO FILE/INFOBOX

Age: 21

Occupation: Savannah State University freshman

Major: Recreation

Best 10K time: 29:21 at the Junior World Championships in Sydney, Australia (ninth place).

Race strategy: "To get a good time." Mangusho drafted behind Mark Hhawu then passed him down Habersham Street. Both runners ran away from the field early in the race before the reverberations from Phil Niekro's starter horn had settled.

Miscellaneous Note: Mangusho won the Tybee Marathon Half Marathon race in February.