Prize boost for Two Oceans race

A COOL half a million rand will be on offer for the elite runners if they can win and bank a new record in tomorrow’s Two Oceans Marathon.

Headline sponsor Totalsports have added a 100% to the winners’ prize money as an incentive.

Totalsports head of business Jonathan Steyn made the announcement yesterday, saying: “We are proud to add this incentive of R250 000.”

For the men, the likes of defending champion Bongmusa Mthembu will have to run faster than 3:03:44.

That outstanding record was run by Thompson Magawana back in 1988, and few have ever got close to it.

While the men’s record has seemed sunreachable over the years, the women’s mark, set in 1988 by the great Frith van der Merwe, has been under threat.

In the last edition in 2019, it survived by 53 seconds as local golden girl Gerda Steyn blitzed to a second successive win.

Steyn said after that race she was not chasing the record, her focus being on the Comrades Marathon whose up-run mark she smashed into smithereens.

“I am aware that I got very close to breaking the record last time around but my focus now is first in defending my title. But if the weather is good on the day, I will go for it.”

With the likes of world 50km record holder Irvette van Zyl and a number of top athletes from Ethiopia in the race, it is likely that Steyn will be pushed hard.

EGGS AND GOODWILL See Page 3 MISS SA, Lalela Mswane, handed out Easter eggs to children at a feeding point known as Aurorah Kuils River CAN on Good Friday. Aurorah CAN is an NGO which has been feeding people in need since the Covid-19 pandemic began. She is pictured with Crystal Williams, four, who received an Easter Egg from the beauty queen. | LEON LESTRADE African News Agency (ANA)