HISTORY
RACE RESULTS
Date | Sunday, 29 May |
Weather | Cool at start. Mild to warm sunshine throughout the day. |
Temperature – Min/ Max: |
|
PMB | 6/27 |
DBN | 12/25 |
Start Venue/Time | Pietermaritzburg City Hall / 5:30 |
Finish Venue | Kingsmead Stadium |
Time Limit | 12 Hours |
Official Distance | 89.208 kms |
Winner’s Average Speed: |
|
Men | 16.830 km/hr (3m 34s /km) |
Women | 13.882 km/hr (4m 19s /km) |
Entries | 21569 |
Starters | 16807 |
Finishers – Total | 14433 |
Men | 11474 |
Women | 2959 |
Medals – Gold | 20 |
Wally Hayward | 16 |
Silver | 607 |
Bill Rowan | 2248 |
Bronze | 6415 |
Vic Clapham | 5127 |
% Finishers / Starters | 85.8 |
THE MENS RACE
With the finish still 44 kilometres away, one aspect of the race was certain. It was not who would be handed the Mayoral Baton, as the race leader, upon entering Kingsmead Stadium. The vexing question was ‘would the Down Record be broken?’
In the end, the record was not broken… it was destroyed… shattered… trashed.
David Gatebe lowered the previous best, set by Russian, Leonid Shvetsov, by 2m 22s; an inordinate result in an age when records are broken by fractions of a second and, in doing so, he set the bar at a level that may prove to be many years ahead of the next generation of aspirant winners.
Once the city had been left behind, a large group, in which all the big names were present, had already assembled in the vanguard, for the dash across the rollercoaster section between the top of Polly Shortts, through Camperdown and Cato Ridge to the crest of Inchanga. The lead had been changing by the minute as the relentless pace continued down the hill to the halfway mark at Drummond. With three previous winners, Ludwick Mamabolo, Bongmusa Mthembu and Claude Moshiywa just strides behind the leader, Bernard Dandadzi, in the lead group through the midpoint, the only certainty was that anyone could win.
Gatebe ran, almost unnoticed, outside the top fifty as Inchanga loomed, but as he went over the top, he pressed the accelerator and went through the checkpoint in seventh position; 1m 45s adrift of the leader. Within two kilometers, he had moved into the lead and from that moment, the race was over. Such was his dominance, as he ran further away from his chief rivals with every stride, the ‘real race’ turned into the fight for the Silver Medal.
Spectators, at the finish in Durban, sat mesmerised in front of the big screen. Striding unchallenged through Hillcrest, the question at the finish was still ‘will he break the record?’ That question changed as Gatebe exited Field’s Hill and ran into Pinetown. It was now ‘by how much will he beat it?’
In little more than an hour, the question was answered. The record was ripped apart; a performance that, in the years ahead, is likely to be recognised as one of the great Comrades performances.
The fight for second place was a bitter struggle that remained unresolved until the final run into the city when Mamabolo broke away, finishing a shade more than two minutes ahead of Mthembu.
RESULT
1st | David Gatebe * | South Africa |
5h 18m 19s New Best Time Down |
2nd | Ludwick Mamabolo | South Africa | 5h 24m 05s |
3rd | Bongmusa Mthembu | South Africa | 5h 26m 39s |
4th | Mike Fokoroni | Zimbabwe | 5h 35m 09s |
5th | Rufus Photo | South Africa | 5h 35m 40s |
6th | Claude Moshiywa | South Africa | 5h 36m 25s |
7th | Siphiwe Ndlela | South Africa | 5h 36m 56s |
8th | Max King | USA | 5h 37m 27s |
9th | Charles Tijane | South Africa | 5h 37m 40s |
10th | Mncedisi Mkhize | South Africa | 5h 38m 34s |
* First Sub-5:20 Down Run
VETERANS (AGE 40 – 49)
1st | Claude Moshiywa (41) | South Africa | 5h 36m 25s |
2nd | Charles Tjiane (41) | South Africa | 5h 37m 40s |
3rd | Marko Mambo (44) | Zimbabwe | 5h 45m 08s |
MASTERS (AGE 50 - 59)
1st | Lazarus Seroka (51) | South Africa | 6h 42m 47s |
2nd | Shaun Meiklejohn (55) | South Africa | 6h 43m 29s |
3rd | Pienas Magashule (53) | South Africa | 6h 58m 33s |
GRANDMASTERS (AGE 60 +)
1st | Johan Nel (62) | South Africa | 8h 07m 41s |
2nd | Shalom Levi (61) | Israel | 8h 18m 21s |
3rd | Almon Zibuse (65) | South Africa | 8h 25m 21s |
THE WOMENS RACE
There could only be one possible winner.
Caroline Wostmann’s near Up Record in 2015, on a course nearly 900 metres longer than the normal race route – the result of road construction work in Pinetown – and her back-to-back victories in the Two Oceans, made her one of the hottest favourites in a decade.
Despite the unquestioned, and proven, class of those she would be up against – women like Colleen de Reuck and Charne Bosman, the 2015 runner-up – the cognoscenti were adamant; Wostmann had to fail, rather than another having to run way above their known ability, to beat her.
Unlike the men’s race, where the traditional strategy is, for the fancied runners, to hang back and then attack from behind over the closing miles; the women’s race usually sees the leading contenders showing prominently in front, from the outset.
Once the scramble after the start thinned out, Wostmann, always an aggressive front-runner, led the procession out of Pietermaritzburg with Bosman trailing in an ever-lengthening second place. Wostmann’s overwhelming dominance reflected by a lead of 4m 11s, over Bosman, through halfway at Drummond, led spectators at the finish to believe that the winner was already known. This belief was further strengthened when her lead at Pinetown – 20 kilometres from Kingsmead – had stretched to 11m 26s. No one could possibly whittle away more than 30 seconds per kilometer, on the run-in, to cause a major upset; not with a smiling Wostmann flowing so freely.
Cowies Hill, the last major obstacle, loomed and, in the blink of an eye, the complexion of the race changed.
Wostmann was walking up the hill… cramp… the distance-runners number one enemy. She was in trouble, walking and jogging in a painful effort to keep moving. Bosman, on the other hand, was closing, although at Sherwood, a mere 7 kilometres from the finish, she trailed by 8m 23s, a margin that many maintained was still safe for the struggling leader.
Then disaster struck for Wostmann. On the approach to the city centre, in an altercation with a motorcycle-mounted traffic officer, she was knocked to the ground. She struggled to her feet and, on wobbly legs, continued towards Kingsmead.
A few hundred metres further on, Bosman, now in full flight, cruised past. At the finish, Wostmann revealed what a true champion she is. Admitting that the motorcycle incident was a setback, she acknowledged that, although she was still in the lead at the time, she was already beaten and that the mishap had no effect on the final finishing order.
Bosman ran, triumphantly, onto the Kingsmead turf; a clear winner in 6h 25m 55s, slightly less than five minutes ahead of Wostmann.
In the closing stages, away from the television cameras, and oblivious of the drama ahead, Swede, Kajsa Berg, and American, Sarah Bard, contested the Bronze Medal with Berg succeeding by 3m 31s.
RESULT
1st | Charne Bosman | South Africa | 6h 25m 55s |
2nd | Caroline Wostmann | South Africa | 6h 30m 44s |
3rd | Kajsa Berg | Sweden | 6h 39m 04s |
4th | Sarah Bard | USA | 6h 42m 35s |
5th | Yolande Maclean | South Africa | 6h 43m 24s |
6th | Kerry-Ann Marshall | South Africa | 6h 48m 51s |
7th | Colleen De Reuck | South Africa | 6h 50m 21s |
8th | Fikile Mbuthuma | South Africa | 6h 56m 32s |
9th | Julanie Basson | South Africa | 6h 58m 10s |
10th | Salome Cooper | South Africa | 7h 01m 02s |
VETERANS (AGE 40 – 49)
1st | Charne Bosman (40) | South Africa | 6h 25m 55s |
2nd | Julanie Basson (41) | South Africa | 6h 58m 10s |
3rd | Salome Cooper (40) | South Africa | 7h 01m 02s |
MASTERS (AGE 50 - 59)
1st | Colleen De Reuck (52) | South Africa |
6h 50m 21s New Best Time Down |
2nd | Ricarda Bethke (52) | Germany | 8h 13m 02s |
3rd | Tia Jones (50) | Australia | 8h 14m 21s |
GRANDMASTERS (AGE 60 +)
1st | Val Watson (60) | South Africa | 8h 38m 13s |
2nd | Blanche Moila (60) | South Africa | 9h 12m 25s |
3rd | Nancy Will (63) | South Africa | 9h 31m 00s |