Part-time winner's dream comes true

Durban – Part-time road runner Claude Moshiywa of Nasrec, Joburg, became the first South African to win the Comrades Marathon up run since Jetman Mosotho won it in 1992.

Moshiywa’s winning time of 5:32:08 was significantly faster than Mosotho’s 5:46:11, but seven minutes 21 seconds slower than the up run record of 5:24:47 set by Russian Leonid Shvetsov in 2008.

Second place was filled by the quiet man from Sweden, Jonas Buud (Nedbank), who judged his race perfectly in steadily worsening conditions with the thermometer showing a temperature of over 30ºC, and the hot north-westerly Berg wind steadily increasing with each passing hour.

The last place on the podium went to Team Toyota’s Mpesela Ntlosoeu, who came in comfortably two minutes ahead of Ludwick Mamabolo, giving Nick Bester’s Team Nedbank three of the first four places.

In an amazing finishing stretch to this 88th Comrades Marathon, several of the backmarkers picked up the pace to overtake the erstwhile leaders and big-name favourites like Stephen Muzinghi and Bongmusa Mthembu.

Buud moved up an incredible three places from being fourth at Polly Shortts with 7km to go, to second behind Moshiywa in 5:41:20.

Lesotho’s Ntlosoeu managed to hold on to third place in 5:43:37, while last year’s winner, Mamabolo, ran into fourth place in 5:45:48 having run consistently throughout the race.

Johannes Kekaka (Bonitas), who had shared the lead with Moshiywa from as far back as Camperdown, 26km from the finish, eventually admitted defeat as he slipped into fifth place in 5:46:26.

The last of the 10 gold medals went to Henry Moyo (sixth in 5:46:51), Joseph Mphuthi (seventh in 5:47:59), Mike Fokoroni (eighth in 5:50:10), Rufus Photo (ninth in 5:51:51) and Muzinghi, the 2009 and 2011 up run winner (10th in 5:52:37).

Moshiywa, a veteran of 13 Comrades, said he had anticipated a tough run and had trained as hard as he could for it. The father of two young boys holds a six-hour-a-day job at FNB, and his training was restricted to three hours before work in the morning and another couple of hours after work.

His prize money of R300 000 for coming first and a bonus of R150 000 for being the first South African man to finish earns him a cool R450 000 for this six-hour stint.

“My race went more or less to plan,” said the 38-year-old, “but I have to thank Johannes (Kekaka) for running beside me for all that time.

“The worst thing was that we did not know how far we were ahead of the chasers, we had no splits (times) to work with.

“I was surprised there was not a bigger challenge at the front of the race with so many big-name runners in the field.

“As I got closer to the finish I have to admit I was scared at times that people would get in my way as they ran out into the road to cheer me.”

He said he found it hard to believe he was the winner of this year’s Comrades, even as he crossed the line with Chariots of Fire ringing in his ears.

The 39-year-old Buud, who is also a part-timer, married and with two children, was in 11th position at Camperdown and 10 minutes behind race leaders Moshiywa and Kekana at that stage with 26km to go.

By Polly Shortts he had moved up to fourth and, although he was still 11 minutes behind Moshiywa, he had justified his belief in himself to do well. He will return to Durban in October for the World 100km Championships.

“I like to run four or five ultra-marathons a year,” he said.

Slightly built Ntlosoeu from Maseru found himself in 50th position in 2:50:41 at the half-way mark in Drummond, 10 minutes behind the race leaders, and decided to do something about it.

Three hours later he climbed on to the podium in third place overall.

Asked if he was able to do any altitude training in Lesotho, he replied: “I just have to step out of my front door and there is a mountain to run up.”

Meanwhile, Russian twins Elena and Olesya Nurgalieva of the Maxed Elite Team (Mr Price) continued their decade-long domination of the women’s race.

Elena took the title in 6:27:08 from her sister, who finished just 57 seconds behind her in 6:28:06, both of them well outside the up run record of 6:09:24 that Elena set in 2004. She has won every up run since.

The twins were nine minutes ahead of Charne Bosman as they reached Drummond,

and reduced the pace over the second half as temperatures began to rise with the strengthening Berg wind.

”Why should we hurt ourselves?” said Elena, “We don’t want to do that, we love Comrades, it is really the only race we train for in a year and we want to continue coming back and running in it.”

The sisters agreed that their lifestyles and their routines had changed dramatically with the birth of Olesya’s son Alexander (Sasha) as his welfare had to be considered as well.

Third place went to another Russian, Irina Antropova (Nedbank, formerly Vishneyskaya), who turned 31 yesterday.

She overtook a tiring Bosman (Bonitas) over the gruelling stretch between Camperdown and the end to finish in 6:44:36 in her fourth Comrades. Scotland-based Joasia Zakrzewski, running in her third Comrades, improved her 2011 up run time dramatically by finishing in fourth place in 6:53:28, improving her time by 20 minutes and at the same time overtaking Bosman in the finishing sprint.

Bosman had to settle for fifth place in 6:53:34, the first South African woman.

Zimbabwean Thabita Tsatsa withdrew from the race at Cowies Hill.

Shaun Meiklejohn finished 71st overall in 6:46:42 at the age of 51 for a sub-seven-and-a-half-hour silver medal. He has never won anything but silver and gold medals in his years of running Comrades.

“Rhino Man” Vincent O’Neill came in at 4.08pm, none the worse for wear for his additional 8kg of rhino costume in the middle of a crowd of Save the Rhino supporters. – The Mercury

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