Tayla Kavanagh plays the field to perfection in setting PB at Totalsports Women’s Race Durban

Tayla Kavanagh cunningly used the strong international field to pull her along as she shattered her personal best 10km time at Sunday’s extremely fast Totalsports Women’s Race Durban, the local favourite confirming her status as one of the rising young stars of South African distance running.

The consistent Kavanagh, who clocked 34:20 to win the Durban International Marathon 10km race on May 4, was the first South African runner home on Sunday. The 24-year-old Hollywood Athletics Club distance runner finished fifth in a fast time of 31:53. She dipped under 32 minutes for the first time.

The race was won by defending champion Christine Njoki of Kenya, who broke the all-comers record in near-perfect conditions in a time of 30:14. Clare Ndiwa came in second in 31:37 while Jane Chacha finished third  in 31:51, making it a clean podium sweep for the Kenyans.

In fact, Kavanagh prevented a foreign sweep of the top 10 in the prestigious women’s race that was the first of a series of three women-only races in August.

“My goal over the last while has been getting back to that 32:10, which was my PB. It’s always nice to break that by quite a bit, so I’m really happy,” the Hillcrest-born ace told Independent Media Sport after her monumental achievement.

“I just went out there and I know I’ve been in good shape, so I was hoping to run a low 32. So to break 32, I’m really stoked. 

“I knew the field was really strong today so I thought to myself you’ve got to use every opportunity you get on a fast course with a really strong field. And I think I just went out to run hard, use the girls and I caught up to a lot of them along the way.

“It’s always quite motivational catching up to someone, running with them and then taking them because you’re like one position ahead. It really helped having so many internationals here to pull me along and I think that’s why I ran so well today.”

Hollywood Athletics Club teammate Neheng Khatala of Lesotho was a great help. Their partnership on the road reaped dividends for both runners as Khatala set a new national record of 31:53 in finishing fourth.

“I was just pushing with Tayla. We were communicating. From halfway we just pushed a little more, and we kept pushing,” an equally elated Khatala said afterwards.

The second leg of the Totalsports Women’s Race series is in Cape Town on Saturday – Women’s Day. While Njoki has confirmed that she will also defend that title – she won back-to-back races in the series last year – Kavanagh will skip that race.

Instead, she will next focus on her defence of the Maritzburg Spar Women’s 10km Challenge title on August 17. It offers her the perfect tune-up for  next month’s Hollywoodbets Durban 10km.

“I have won Spar Maritzburg the last two years and it’s always nice to do a local race, so I’ll hop into that one. It’s quite a hilly course, so it will be good for a training run and after that I’ll be hopping into Hollywood. I’m excited for what’s to come,” Kavanagh concluded.