Foreigners bring class to Legends
AN EPIC race is on the cards as the third edition of the Legends Marathon kicks off early tomorrow morning.
A packed field of impressive running talent will take part in the 21.1km half-marathon with a very exciting finish a distinct possibility.
A strong international contingent will be taking part in the race.
Last year’s men’s champion Lusapho April and women’s champ, Constance Nyasango, will not be participating so there will be a new champion in both sections.
Kenneth Cheruiyot and Teris Jepkoris, both from Fast Way running in Kenya, on the men’s and women’s side respectively, come into the race in good form.
Cheruiyot has a personal best 10km time of 28:12 (minutes:seconds) and his manager Craig Fry is aiming for him to run as close to 61 minutes as he can.
“I want Kenneth to run as close to a 61 as possible because if the wind stays away the course will welcome a fast time like that,” said Fry.
Jepkoris has a personal best marathon time of 2hrs, 37min , half-marathon time of 71 minutes and 10km time of 33 minutes.
She has just come off a win at the eThekweni Township 2 Township Marathon this past weekend.
Two of their main challengers for the race will be Zimbabwe runners Manya Jari in the men’s race and Tabitha Tsatsa in the women’s.
Jari also comes into the event off a win at the eThekweni Marathon, while Tsatsa is a very consistent runner. Last year she ran five marathons on consecutive weekends, claiming top-10 finishes in all of them.
Locally, Lungile Gongqa, who finished in third place last year will be eager to improve. So too last year’s second placed finisher Xolisa Tyali, while Melikhaya Frans is another South African runner to keep the eyes on. In all, over 600 runners will be taking part in the 21km race and they will all be chasing personal goals and milestones.
The winner in each category picks up R15 000 with second claiming R12 000 and third R10 000.
The top-10 finishers in the open category will claim prizes, while the top three in each of the divisional categories will also receive a prize.
Entries for the Galaxy Bingo 5km fun run to take place at 9am tomorrow can be dropped off at the expo, as well as entries for the win-acar competition.
A year later he won a 10km race organised by the East London IDZ.
For this year’s Legends, Hejana started his preparations in May and believes this should be enough to secure him the title or at least a top 10 finish.
“My confidence is inspired by the way I have been doing things in preparing for this race, like my training schedule and the people around me,” he said.
“For instance I trained myself in 2014 but this year I roped in a