MAKING THE NATION PROUD:
In a historic weekend for South African sport, Bongumusa Mthembu and Ann Ashworth raced to gold medals at the 2018 Comrades Marathon yesterday in their respective categories. The Springboks, led by Siya Kolisi, recorded a historic win against England in Johannesburg on Saturday. The weekend was rounded off by the Blitzboks winning the World Rugby Sevens Series after beating England last night.
DEFENDING men’s champion Bongumusa Mthembu became the first South African since 1988 to win the back-to-back Comrades Marathon titles after clinching a gold medal in yesterday’s race from Pietermaritzburg to Durban.
South African Ann Ashworth won the Comrades Marathon women’s race after clocking 6hr 10:8min.
Mthembu, from Bulwer in KwaZulu-Natal, took the line hours in 5:26:33 to register his third win in the ultra-marathon event, having taken the top spot for the first time in 2014.
The last time a South African male athlete was able to record back-to-back wins was Bruce Fordyce in 1987 and 1988, although, in the women’s event, Frith van der Merwe managed to achieve this in 1988 and 1989.
After the race, Mthembu said: “It was a very emotional feeling crossing the finish line and I lay flat on the floor thinking about all the sacrifices and effort that I put in.
“I spent part of my build-up training outside of the country and I am just glad that it all paid off.”
The race was still wide open until about 18km to go near Cowie’s Hill before Mthembu made his move and managed to stride away from fellow South Africans Edward Mothibi, David Gatebe and Gift Kelehe.
Ashworth, a Johannesburg-based advocate said: “It is an awesome feeling to win the Comrades Marathon title. The race lead was changing quite a bit early on but I am glad that I got the break at the right time and I am just so pleased to have won it.”
Ashworth has also been hard at work as a founding member of Massmart Athletics Club, encouraging women to participate in road running.
“If I can get young girls to take part in this great sport, then that is a major achievement for me,” she said.
Gerda Steyn was next best in 6:15.34, followed by Russian Alexandra Morozova, who seemed set to mount a strong challenge earlier in the race before Ashworth was able to break away.
Meanwhile, 2012 Olympian Tanith Maxwell and Charne Bosman, among the pre-race favourites for the women’s title, had to settle for fourth and fifth positions respectively.