Tunyiswa ‘in great shape’ for City2City

TOP ultra-distance runner Odwa Tunyiswa is on a mission to reclaim the Bonitas City2City Marathon from Pretoria to Johannesburg this coming Sunday morning with its winner’s purse of R60,000 on offer.

A training partner of the legendary Hendrick Ramaala, Tunyiswa has been hard at training to prepare for the event that he first won in 2011.

“I’m in great shape and looking forward to the marathon,” said Tunyiswa, who has had a quiet build-up to this marathon.

Tunyiswa was given special permission by his club to train on his own at Zoo Lake and not to go to the camp at the high performance centre in Potchefstroom.

“Two months ago I asked manager Joseph Ikaneng to allow me to train on my own in Johannesburg to prepare. He agreed. “I was training with people like Hendrick and Zongamele Dyubeni and focused on endurance and speed. They helped a lot.”

The team in Potchefstroom includes defending champion Johannes Kekana, who finished fifth in this year’s Comrades.

“My preparations are going well,” he said. “We had a camp in Graskop in Mpumalanga and later moved to Potchefstroom.

“The title is going nowhere but I expect a tough race,” said the man who won the All Africa Games Marathon in 1999.

Other top runners competing are Tshifhiwa Mundalamo, Ntobesentu Mfunzi, Mpho Mabuza, Herman Mokgadi, Charles Tjiene, Henry Moyo, Leonard Koki, Collen Parura, Sam Munyai, Kudukwasi Kandina, Merid Hamda and Ethiopian Alema Dabessa.

The organisers have said newly crowned Gauteng Challenge Marathon winner Mapaseka Makhanya and Elroy Geland, SA’s 12km cross-country champion, will run in the half marathon.