Tsatsa tipped to take Comrades
|Published
Tabitha Tsatsa of Zimbabwe. Picture: Etienne Creux Tabitha Tsatsa of Zimbabwe. Picture: Etienne Creux
Durban – Zimbabwean runner Thabita Tsatsa could be the surprise package in the women’s race of the Comrades Marathon on Sunday.
The Olympic marathoner has a personal best time of 2hr 29min for a standard 42km race, making her potentially just as fast as Russia’s Nurgalieva twins, Elena and Olesya.
Although Tsatsa has only recently stepped up to ultra-distance running, her first venture in a race longer than 42km saw her cross the line of this year’s Two Oceans Marathon in second place behind Natalia Volgina, who has since had an adverse result for a drug test.
And that means that Tsatsa could well be the one to end the Russian domination of the women’s Comrades Marathon.
As for the men’s race, it has not been so open for many a year or so bristling with South Africans with not a single Russian in sight. The only foreigner among the top 10 men’s favourites is Jonas Buud, of Sweden, running for Nedbank Running Club.
He came fourth in his 2011 Comrades debut in 5:42:45 but more recently came second in the 100km World Championships.
Ludwick Mamabolo, last year’s Comrades winner, is also a top contender, as is Bongmusa Mthembu, who is another Nedbank team member and was runner-up to Mamabolo last year.
The 29-year-old Mthembu will not lack for support along the 89km route because he will be heading towards his home town of Pietermaritzburg.
He has completed the big race seven times, taking gold in three of them, finishing seventh in 2009, third in 2010 and second in 2011.
Mthembu said he had trained twice a day on most days and was covering as much as 250km a week.
He has been tipped by Nedbank’s team manager, Nick Bester, as this year’s winner.
“He has a good support team and can go all the way,” said Bester.
Stephen Muzhingi, the Zimbabwean runner and winner in 2009, 2010 and 2011, is another standout distance runner who, providing he has completely recovered from a niggling hamstring injury, has it in him physically and mentally to win.
After a long association with the Formula 1 Bluff Meats Running Club, Muzhingi has thrown his lot in with Team Toyota after coming sixth last year.
He is a good judge of pace and runs his own race, ignoring all that is going on around him, and is definitely a top-three candidate.
Claude Moshiywa, a top-10 finisher last year and third in 2011, is another from the Nedbank stable who has impressive credentials.
The Nurgalieva twins arrived in Cape Town in March with a dose of flu contracted from Olesya’s 10-month-old son and were under par during the 56km Two Oceans, unable to perform at their best.
Since then they have had six weeks of training and say they are back in top form, which would unquestionably make Elena the favourite on Sunday.
She has won every “up” run she has entered since 2004, holds the record up-run time of 6:09:24 and has finished in the top three in every one of her 10 Comrades appearances.
Olesya, on the other hand, may not have had enough time since her pregnancy to get into as good condition as her sister, so may not be able to provide the back-up role that has seen her record two wins, five runners-up positions and a fourth.
The pair are thus more vulnerable this year than they have been since their debut in 2003.
The most experienced of their challengers has to be Marina Zhalybina (formerly Bychkova), who has collected 11 gold medals from 12 starts and finished second on three of the up runs between 2004 and 2008.
The 37-year-old is as confident as ever of her fitness and is the only person who has managed to split the twins on an up run.
Tsatsa, the Nurgalieva twins and Zhalybina will be running in the colours of the Maxed Elite team, but Comrades has tended to be a race where the individual has greater ranking than the club, so expect no quarter to be asked or given.
As for the rest of the field, it is headed by Irina Vishneyskaya, a 100km specialist who finished fifth in 2011 and seventh last year.
She will have extra motivation because she will be celebrating her 31st birthday tomorrow, and with a time of 7:33 for 100km she is a stayer with no lack of speed.
Holly Rush is a novice from the south of England who boasts a time of 34 minutes for 10km on the road and a 2:37 marathon, which puts her firmly in the frame. Although her ultra-marathon experience is limited to a trail race, her build-up includes a multi-day race in the Himalayas.
Of the South African women, Kerry Koen, who was sixth last year in 6:45:45, will want to improve on that result.
“I’m simply focusing on improving my own performance,” said the 37-year-old.
The Bonitas athlete has added incentive because she will be running home to Pietermaritzburg.
“It is very special for me because over the final quarter of the race I will see people I know, and it is a great inspiration to hear your name and see them smile and shout encouragement. I’m ready for this year and want a good one.”
Perhaps her greatest competition for local and national honours will come from Melanie van Rooyen, the bronze medallist in this year’s SA Marathon Championships.
The Richards Bay athlete has improved in leaps and bounds over the past 18 months, thanks to the assistance of Andrew Bosch in Cape Town, and has cut back on racing in recent weeks.
These two runners are also KwaZulu-Natal’s best hopes for Comrades gold.
Another surprise package in the women’s race could be England-born Joasia Zakrzewski, who has a Polish father and is living in Scotland, where she has a doctor’s general practice. She will be running her third Comrades in a row after coming 14th in the previous up run in 2011 and fourth in last year’s “down” run.
She has been much travelled in her life and has had a fascinating roadrunning career so far, having only taken to the road four-and-a-half years ago.
Born in County Durham, England, she was raised there and also in France and the US before studying medicine at Cambridge, where she graduated in 1999, “the last doctor to graduate in the last millennium”, she quipped.
She relocated to Sydney and then had a spell in Tasmania before returning to the Lake District, where she did her general practice training.
She lives in Dumfries in Scotland, where she takes to the road at every opportunity when she is not wearing her doctor’s hat or playing bridge or her bassoon in the local orchestra.
She said her passion for roadrunning had begun in Chile, where she was the official event doctor for a marathon across the Atacama Desert in 2009.
“I was so intrigued by this race and the runners who took part in it that I decided to return and run it a year later,” she said.
She became so addicted to roadrunning that she began to run marathons whenever and wherever she could. Her fastest time so far is 2:41 in Florence in 2011.
She also ran her first Comrades that year in 7:14, before running for Great Britain in the World 100km Championships, where she came second to Zhalybina.
Her fourth-place finish in last year’s Comrades has made her keener than ever to go one better this year for a place on the podium.
Her training this year took her to the Barcelona Marathon in March and the Lochaber Marathon in Scotland last month, when she came second overall and broke the women’s course record by five minutes. – Independent on Saturday
RUNNERS TO WATCH
Men Race number
1 Ludwick Mamabolo (RSA) 45047
2 Bongmusa Mthembu (RSA) 31020
3 Leboka Noto (Lesotho) 49863
4 Marko Mambo (Zim) 13790
5 Stephen Muzhingi (Zim) 55925
6 Gift Kelehe (RSA) 18289
7 Claude Moshiywa (RSA) 46216
8 Petros Sosibo (RSA) 35458
9 Fusi Nhlapo (RSA) 14084
10 Godfrey Sesenyamotse (RSA) 16329
Women Race number
1 Elena Nurgalieva (Russia) 19987
2 Olesya Nurgalieva (Russia) 19988
3 Marina Zhalybina (formerly Bychkova) (Russia) 39390
4 Joasia Zakrzewski (Russia) 12094
5 Kerry Koen (RSA) 34175
6 Irina Vishneyskaya (Russia) 59656
7 Melanie van Rooyen (RSA) 21553
8 Julanie Basson (RSA) 52266
9 Lizzy Hawker (GBR) 58804
10 Adinda Kruger (RSA) 41196