Mamabolo’s redemption race?

Durban – While there are no clear favourites to win the men’s race in Sunday’s 88th Comrades Marathon from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, the defending “up run” champion and three-times winner of the world’s biggest ultra-marathon, Stephen Muzhingi, will go into the race with a better track record than most of the field of 16 000 runners.

The 37-year-old Zimbabwean runner, who could only run into sixth place in last year’s “down run” in the colours of Formula 1 Bluff Meats, has relocated to Team Toyota and is set on returning to the top of the podium.

He will be looking to improve on his 2011 winning time of 5:32:45, with Russian Leonid Shvetsov holding the “up run” record in 5:24:47.

Muzhingi is well aware of the pacing required and, provided he is not hampered by the hamstring injury that has sidelined him for much of this year, could well be the first to crest Polly Shortts come 11am on Sunday.

Last year’s “down run” winner, Ludwick Mamabolo, has only recently returned to the road after he was acquitted of charges following his controversial drug test result in last year’s race.

Mamabola was still awaiting the final judgment even as he lined up for the Two Oceans Marathon last March, and has become even more determined to make his point since being cleared in May.

“Determination and his desire to regain the crown could be the telling factor,” said nine-time winner Bruce Fordyce in Durban on Thursday.

“The differentiation between the elite runners comes with the mind, which makes Mamabolo a real threat.”

Experts are saying that Sunday’s race is probably the most open since 1989, when Fordyce took a year off and the battle at the front ended up being between Sam Tshabalala and KwaZulu-Natal hopeful Willie Mtolo.

There are a number of contenders who can consider themselves in with a chance, one being Claude Moshiwa.

Moshiwa has four gold Comrades medals out of his 12 starts, three of them coming in the last three outings with a third place last year.

The local support will be behind Bongmusa Mthembu and Prodigal Khumalo. Mthembu has shown he can tackle the hills and finished runner-up in last year’s down run. But this year he will be running towards his home town, Pietermaritzburg, which should give him a big psychological advantage.

There is one foreign runner among the list of top-ten finishers, Sweden’s Jonas Budd, who ran fourth on his debut two years ago.

Injury and illness have hit the female foreign runners even harder, with the loss of Kemi Semmick and Ellie Greenwood leaving the dynamic Russian twins, Elena and Olesya Nurgalieva, favourites to share the spoils.

Although the twins failed to deliver the goods in the Two Oceans in March, they are considerably fitter having recovered from the ‘flu and Olesya having put in an extra six weeks of training since her return to roadrunning following the birth of her son.

Zimbabwean Olympic marathoner Tabitha Tsatsa has a 2:29 marathon to her credit and, although a novice to the Comrades, she has the speed to give the twins anxious moments.

It would also be folly to omit Marina Zhalybina from the equation, as the Russian has eleven gold medals to her name and was the runner-up in 2006 when Elena Nurgalieva set the “up run” record.

This could even be the year for the South African women to challenge for the remaining gold medals, with KZN’s Kerry Koen, last year’s first South African to cross the finish line, the one to beat.

The Pietermaritzburg-based trail and road runner could find her strongest challenger in Melanie van Rooyen of Richards Bay.

No matter which way one looks at it, this is going to be one of the most exciting races of the past two decades and its wide open for the bookmakers to make a killing.

In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing the security has been increased for Sunday’s race, and the finish at the Cricket Oval is expected to have more than 50 000 people passing through on the day. – The Mercury

*TV: SABC2, 4.50am

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