Prodigal Khumalo was uplifted by his love of running and built a 22-year long career, now he pays it forward by uplifting runners from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Durban, South Africa (05 April 2022) – Long-distance runner Prodigal Khumalo kicked off his latest fund-raising efforts for the Orcas Running Academy with a run from Drummond to Durban on Sunday, 3 April. He was joined by teammates and Academy members on the 45km run along the Comrades Marathon route, finishing at Hollywoodbets Kings Park Stadium.
“I am raising funds to purchase a 10-seater vehicle that will transport runners to training and races. Most track races are in the Durban city centre and it costs R40 per runner for a return trip. Normally we take about 15 runners for racing once a month.”
The Orcas Running Academy is a training academy and running club Khumalo founded in 2018 that supports the development of disadvantaged runners. He is a two-times Comrades gold medallist and two-times winner of the Ultra-trail Cape Town (100km), amongst many accolades during his 22-year running career. His focus is split between his own running career and his role as a coach and mentor to promising young running talent.
His Inanda training camp is now attracting runners from all over South Africa with athletes from Free State, Gauteng, and KwaZulu-Natal. Most runners hail from the INK area (Inanda, Ntuzuma and Kwamashu), and the club forms the largest development running team in the INK area.
A number of the runners live on-site at the Orcas Running Academy premises in buildings constructed with the funds raised by Khumalo’s 100 km fund-raising run from Hilton to Durban in January 2021. Khumalo started the building work himself in 2020 but realised he was about R 100 000 short, so he decided to run to raise the rest of the money.
Sponsors like Hollywoodbets, Bonakude and Terra paid for the building material, and Khumalo was able to complete the work in April last year.
“I provide shelter and food at the camp, and transport the runners to races. I also provide coaching to them, and I have two development coaches that assist me,” says Khumalo.
Amongst the many talents that Khumalo coaches is Howick’s Nkosikhona Mhlakwana. The 27-year-old placed 11th in his first Comrades in 2019 and has personal best times of 2h16 in 42km, 65.05 in 21km, and 30.03 in 10km. The pair both run for Hollywoodbets Athletics Club, and Khumalo looks forward to a new era in his running after turning 40 in March.
“Turning 40 means a lot to me in my own career. This is the beginning of a new age group, and I will be moving into running 100 milers. This is also an exciting time as I will now focus more on passing skills to the next generation and helping to produce a new group of star athletes.
How you can get involved:
Bank details for donating:
Orcas Running Academy Club,
Nedbank Savings
Account, 2032244179,
Branch – Musgrave.
Reference your full name and #OrcasTransport.
If anyone can support in any other way, you can reach Prodigal at prodkhumalo@gmail.com
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