Comrades gold for EL’s Smith
STEPHANIE Smith has reaffirmed her label as not only the Border-Kei region’s top ultra marathon runner, but also as one of the best woman ultra runners in the land.
A gold medal at the 2017 Comrades Marathon follows on from the gold she won at Two Oceans in April.
It was an outstanding performance on the back of not only Two Oceans but also a fairly fast marathon in Prague two weeks later.
The Born 2 Run star has traditionally worked her way through the field, but in this instance she was in the top 10 from the start.
The number nine has featured prominently in her year, given that those are as many months to have passed since the birth of her first child. Then she came in ninth at Two Oceans and was ninth again at Comrades.
To be in the top 10 in South Africa’s two most prestigious races in the same year has never been done by any Border athlete in the past.
Indeed, of all the women at Comrades this year only Smith and Sarah Bard from the US were top 10 finishes in both races. Smith came from behind to beat Bard into 10th place at Two Oceans, and the American finished 6th at Comrades.
Five of the top 10 women were international athletes, making Smith the fifth South African home.
She had the added honour of leading home the Born 2 Run women from both East London and Johannesburg.
Commenting immediately after the race Smith said, “That was so hard. I went through a tough patch and was so sore.”
It was at this point, with approximately 17km to go that Ann Ashworth of Born 2 Run Johannesburg was able to talk to her at a club sponsored watering point. The pep talk worked and Smith found a new resolve to dig deeper still.
A physically drained Smith arrived at the finish with her trademark smile and was met by husband Travis, who had been on the route all morning. The traditional response to her coach was “Never again”.
Not only was this Smith’s first gold medal at Comrades (she was 13th in 2015) but it was yet another personal best time of 7hr 0min 30sec.
Border Athletics President, Daan Louw said yesterday, “that performance was unbelievable. We all say she can do it, but when you see her actually accomplish such a feat at one of South Africa’s greatest races it is wonderful.”
Only one local man went faster than Smith on the day and he was the region’s fastest in 2016 too, Bonginkosi Noluhlazana of Cheetahs ran 7:00:01. This was not his fastest, but it was an eighth straight silver medal.
Silvers were far and few between, confirming that the hot conditions took a toll on the runners.
Rainbow Sports Club runner, Mbuyisile Mema has been a consistent silver medallist and he was again finishing in 7:18:46.
Others to break the 7:30 barrier were Xolile Maschicila of Overtakers in 7:25:16, Raymond de Klerk and Mndeni Zulu of Oxford Striders with 7:20:15 and 7:28:33 respectively.
The second Border woman home was Born 2 Run’s Karen Davis who ran her first Bill Rowan medal time and a personal best 8:38:24. She was also the top veteran woman in the local contingent and 27th overall, while Brenda Graham of Oxford Striders followed in 8:40:54.
Over and above these there were of course many great personal goals achieved and they too will be celebrated by all who are close to them.