Smith all to do in top field in hunt for Comrades gold
THE Comrades Marathon Association, with just 20 days to go to the 2017 race, have released their list of top contenders and elite runners.
Included in the list are a number of previous winners and multiple gold medallists.
East London and indeed the Border have just one runner on that list. Stephanie Smith is one of five members of Born 2 Run in the group named, but the other four are all Johannesburg-based.
Smith last ran Comrades in 2015, her first up-run and first silver medal in a time of 7:11. She came 13th that year and was the sixth South African to complete the 87km haul.
Having missed the 2016 race due to being pregnant at the time, Smith has bounced back in 2017 and came second at the Buffs Marathon to her Johannesburg stablemate Ann Ashworth. That was just six months after giving birth.
Smith then kicked on to record her first ever gold medal for a top 10 finish at the Two Oceans 56km Marathon in Cape Town in April.
Ashworth is also on the list having added the Loskop Marathon to her list of wins in 2017. She is fired up following her Comrades 13th finish and silver medal last year and has never been in better shape.
Also in their team is Yolande Maclean a seven-time gold medallist, Julanie Basson who is going for a fifth gold and Salome Cooper a top veteran competitor with a 7:09 personal best.
Born 2 Run have won the women’s team competition twice in the past three years and were runners-up between the two wins.
KPMG and Nedbank will have expectations of another win through one by Caroline Wostmann, the 2015 winner and Charne Bosman the winner last year.
At the Om-die-Dam ultra this year Wostmann won with Bosman second and there is every reason to believe Comrades is going to be a cracker.
Four times Olympian and winner of numerous international marathons, including Berlin, Colleen de Reuck is also on the KPMG team.
De Reuck also has Eastern Cape connections, with her husband Darren having grown up in East London.
Bosman leads a Nedbank team that includes Fikile Mbuthuma who won her first gold medal last year.
They also have an international component to their challenge for top honours with two Americans, Sarah Bard and Camille Herron along with Swiss national, Jasmin Nunige.
Bard came fourth in 2017 and was 10th at this year’s Two Oceans, while Herron is running her maiden Comrades but is a former world 100 and 50km champion.
Nunige is actually more of a trail runner who won the 90km Ultra Vassan race in 2016 with a time of 6:54. This will be her first attempt at Comrades.
The men’s list includes Tom Tom Athletics Club’s previous two winners, Gift Kelehe (2015) and David Gatebe (2016).
Nedbank are relying on Claude Moshiywa who has won seven gold medals, previous winner Ludwick Mamabolo with six gold medals and Zimbabwean Mike Fokoroni who was fourth last year.
Bonmusa Mthembu of Arthur Ford AC won in 2014, dropped back to 17th in 2015 and then bounced back to finish second last year. He has to be taken seriously.
Maxed Elite’s top contender will be Mncedisi Mkhize who is chasing an eighth gold; he finished third at Two Oceans last month. Teboho Sello from Lesotho won gold in 2015 and Charles Tjiane has three gold medals to his credit and he won the Loskop this year.