A surprise Gift of a win at 50km
THE inaugural Zwelitsha to Mdantsane 50km road race will be considered in the ranks of organising club, Real Gijimas to have been a sound start to an event they hope to develop into a national fixture in the year ahead.
Nkosana Mpolweni, a Real Gijimas stalwart and committee member, called the race on Friday when he said he thought the prerace favourites could be beaten. And they were – properly.
The results are still been finalised at the time of writing, but we do know who took the top three places in both the men’s and women’s races.
The two front runners in the men’s race were unfortunately led off course, resulting in a shorter finish, but race officials deemed them to have been sufficiently far ahead to have won the race anyway.
Zimbabwean, Gift Chigomarawa, in the colours of Nedbank Port Elizabeth, surprised when he came in first, ahead of an equally surprising second place for Zuko Mambula of Qokolweni AC, whose forte is half marathon running. Mambula won the Bridal Drift Half Marathon in 2017 and had a 67:56 at SA Champs last July.
Chigomarawa, on the other hand, is listed with a 2:33 marathon personal best, which is not particularly fast, but on the day he was good enough to beat off a couple of 2:17 marathoners.
Third place went to the versatile Siyabulela Madlavana of Easy Equities Born 2 Run, East London. Madlavana, who is also a veteran, has had an all round good 12 months of running.
The women’s race was always likely to fall to one of Born 2 Run’s golden girls, Stephanie Smith. Although out on a training run, and she was, her 4:10min was more than adequate to take the race. At the finish she added on another 5km for good measure.
Smith said after the race. “I really enjoyed that. The first 15km were very dark and I took it very easy, and the last 10km were over tough terrain, with everything in between quite easy.”
Asked if she is happy with the way her Comrades training is going, she replied: “Yes I am happy. I think it is going well.”
Second place went to Hlazo AC stalwart, Xoliswa Bici, who was running and winning most races when Smith just started out in the running world. Bici is always a formidable opponent, and occupies a special place in the annals of Border roadrunning.
In third place was an ever improving and tough veteran competitor, Bonnie Currin, also of Born 2 Run. It was only two weeks ago that she decided to run the race and, as is the norm, put all her effort into it.
According to the Real Gijimas chairman the only real negative was the fact that yet again they were denied access to Siza Dukashe Stadium. He said a number of visiting runners expressed surprise, saying “major road races around the country are being allowed to use the FNB Stadium, Soweto and the Moses Mabida Stadium for Comrades.”