HISTORY
RACE RESULTS
Date | Sunday, 30 May |
Weather | Cloudy early morning, warming to hot and cloudless at midday. |
Temperature – Min/ Max: |
|
PMB | 6/21 |
DBN | 15/25 |
Start Venue/Time | Pietermaritzburg City Hall / 5:30 |
Finish Venue | Kingsmead Stadium |
Time Limit | 12 Hours |
Official Distance | 89.208 km |
Winner’s Average Speed: |
|
Men | 16.283 km/hr (3m 41s /km) |
Women | 14.360 km/hr (4m 11s /km) |
Entries | 23567 |
Starters | 16482 |
Finishers – Total | 14338 |
Men | 11210 |
Women | 3128 |
Medals – Gold | 20 |
Wally Hayward | 12 |
Silver | 599 |
Bill Rowan | 2304 |
Bronze | 6563 |
Vic Clapham | 4840 |
% Finishers / Starters | 87.0 |
THE MENS RACE
Stephen Muzhingi’s demolition of Leonid Shvetsov in 2009 prompted the question “Has the era of foreign domination ended?”
When the field of nearly 16 500 left the Pietermaritzburg City Hall, in perfect running weather at 5:30, by 11 o’clock the answer would be known.
Leading the field on its journey to Durban was the usual group of top standard marathon performers whose sole objective was the lure of the hotspot prizes on offer.
Behind them two groups, which contained all the main contenders, developed. Stephen Muzhingi was the pace-setter in the first group that included Peter Muthubi, Charles Tjiane and Lucas Nonyana. The following group had Vladimir Kotov as the driver. Hotspot chaser, Wellington Chidodo was timed through Drummond at 2h 37m 15s after which he soon faded to nowhere.
Tjiane, who had broken away from the main group, went through halfway with an advantage of eight minutes over the Muzhingi group. This was, perhaps, a wake-up call to those behind who probably realised that it was Tjiane who, in 2009, led all the way to Pinetown and was caught, as he tired, on the run-in to the finish, to eventually take third place. Maybe this was the year for him to last all the way.
Muzhingi, Claude Moshiywa, Bethuel Netshifhefhe and Fanie Matshipa set off in pursuit of the leader. Unlike last year, Tjiane unexpectedly faded and was walking as he neared Winston Park, but his lead was so great that the Muzhingi quartet finally reeled him in at Kloof.
Unknown to everyone, though, Ludwick Mamabolo and Bongmusa Mthembu, both lost in the main pack through halfway, were turning in a storming run over the final quarter of the race.
Moshiywa accelerated on the big drop down Field’s Hill where, firstly Netshifhefhe, and then Muzhingi drifted off the pace. The crowd at Kingsmead went into raptures on hearing that a South African was leading the race through Pinetown.
Moments later the raptures were silenced when the big screen at Kingsmead showed Moshiywa walking towards the foot of Cowies Hill. Muzhingi had recovered and went into the lead and stayed there, crossing the finish line more than six minutes before Mamabolo arrived, with Mtembu another two minutes adrift.
Returning to the question “Has the Russian strangle hold been broken?”
The first Russian home was Grigory Murzin in 21st place.
Apart from Muzhingi (Zimbabwe) and Noto (Lesotho, 9th) the remaining Gold medals fell into South African hands.
In positions 11 to 20, Prodigal Khumalo (Zimbabwe) finished 11th with South Africans filling out the rest.
RESULT
1st | Stephen Muzhingi | Zimbabwe | 5h 29m 01s |
2nd | Ludwick Mamabolo | South Africa | 5h 35m 29s |
3rd | Bongmusa Mthembu | South Africa | 5h 37m 49s |
4th | Fanie Matshipa | South Africa | 5h 39m 53s |
5th | Fusi Nhlapo | South Africa | 5h 40m 26s |
6th | Claude Moshiywa | South Africa | 5h 43m 04s |
7th | Petros Sosibo | South Africa | 5h 45m 58s |
8th | Peter Molapo | South Africa | 5h 46m 19s |
9th | Leboka Noto | Lesotho | 5h 48m 45s |
10th | Peter Muthubi | South Africa | 5h 49m 10s |
VETERANS (AGE 40 – 49)
1st | Petros Sosibo (40) | South Africa | 5h 45m 58s |
2nd | Grigory Murzin (40) | Russia | 5h 59m 08s |
3rd | Elias Mabane (41) | South Africa | 6h 09m 57s |
MASTERS (AGE 50 - 59)
1st | Vladimir Kotov (52) | Belarus |
5h 51m 38s New Best Time Down |
2nd | Eloi De Oliveira (52) | South Africa | 6h 36m 33s |
3rd | Aubrey Watson (58) | South Africa | 6h 40m 56s |
GRANDMASTERS (AGE 60 +)
1st | Jan Meyer (60) | South Africa | 8h 04m 01s |
2nd | Freddy Khashiri (63) | Zimbabwe | 8h 04m 59s |
3rd | Robert Edouard-Betsy (61) | South Africa | 8h 06m 52s |
THE WOMENS RACE
While great joy flowed from the result of the Men’s Race, there was little joy for local supporters in the Women’s Race with visitors taking seven of the Gold medals; five of them – including the top three positions – going to Russia. Again it was Farwa Mentoor who led the local challenge; finishing fifth.
Mentoor was indisputably the top South African woman of the decade and, in all probability, the greatest ever. It is unfortunate that her peak – she earned nine Golds from nine starts – arrived during the wrong decade.
The race, as a spectacle was a disappointment, as it appeared that the Nurgalieva twins would, again, have things all their own way. They once again adopted their proven tactic of going to the front from there gun and staying there. At Camperdown, twenty-six kilometers into the race, they already held a four-minute lead over Marina Myshlyanova and that was how it remained the entire way into Durban. When they entered Kingsmead Stadium, the contrived result gave Elena a one-second victory over Olesya, the distance back to Myshlyanova had stretched to thirteen minutes.
RESULT
1st | Elena Nurgalieva | Russia | 6h 13m 04s |
2nd | Olesya Nurgalieva | Russia | 6h 13m 05s |
3rd | Marina Myshlyanova | Russia | 6h 26m 03s |
4th | Kami Semick | USA | 6h 32m 55s |
5th | Farwa Mentoor | South Africa | 6h 38m 41s |
6th | Lizzy Hawker | England | 6h 39m 43s |
7th | Irina Antropova | Russia | 6h 44m 27s |
8th | Lindsay van Aswegen | South Africa | 6h 46m 52s |
9th | Adinda Kruger | South Africa | 6h 51m 15s |
10th | Anna Pichtova | Russia | 6h 51m 34s |
VETERANS (AGE 40 – 49)
1st | Marina Myshlyanova (43) | Russia | 6h 26m 03s |
2nd | Kami Semick (43) | USA | 6h 32m 55s |
3rd | Lindsay van Aswegen (41) | South Africa | 6h 46m 52s |
MASTERS (AGE 50 - 59)
1st | Angela Sadler (50) | England |
7h 50m 05s |
2nd | Wendy Fitzmaurice (56) | South Africa | 8h 11m 05s |
3rd | Marie Wolmarans (51) | South Africa | 8h 12m 43s |
GRANDMASTERS (AGE 60 +)
1st | Jan Phelan (61) | South Africa | 9h 07m 57s |
2nd | Carrol Cronk (60) | South Africa | 9h 18m 30s |
3rd | Maria Bernardino (62) | Brazil | 9h 38m 05s |