A great weekend for the Phalula twins
THE Phalula twins, Lebo and Lebogang, dominated the Totalsports Women’s Day action in South Africa over the weekend, with each sister collecting a title apiece.
Lebo raced to victory through the streets of an icecold Stellenbosch yesterday, with Lebogang taking the title in Johannesburg on Sunday, while taking second place to Lebo yesterday.
Lebo clocked 33:16 to win in Stellenbosch by 20 seconds, with former Cape Town athlete, Nolene Conrad, third in 33:55.
Four thousand runners took part in the 5 and 10km events in calm, sunny but icy conditions.
“I had hoped to run a PB today (33:09),” admitted Lebo, “but it was just too cold. I could not warm up until after the finish! But I enjoyed the course, even though the many twists and turns made it a bit slower.”
With fellow Central Gauteng athletes, Rene Kalmer and Mapaseka Makhanya only recently returned to racing following injury, and Nedbank’s Cornelia Joubert battling to stay the pace, the five strong lead pack was reduced to three by the third kilometre, with only Conrad able to keep pace with the Phalula sisters.
By half way Conrad had dropped behind, with Lebo holding a narrow lead, racing through in 17:03. Two kilometres at 3:15 pace saw the pattern unchanged, with Lebogang 4 seconds adrift and Conrad holding the gap at 100 metres, before Lebo unleashed a powerful final kilometre to win in fine style.
Makhanya’ s troublesome achilles injury since her brilliant 2 hr 31 min marathon in Hannover in April had abated sufficiently for her to return to racing. “I can still feel a slight niggle,” admitted Makhanya after placing fifth in 36:17, “but I think that this is more in my head than in my leg!