ROAD RUNNING a stepping stone to hopefully get to the World Champs and Olympics someday .”
That said , Cian is making sure not to get carried away by all the PBs and success of the past two years . “ Realistically , I think I ’ m too slow for the World Champs this year , because the 5000-metre qualifying mark is 15:10 , and for the 10,0000 it ’ s 31:25 . I back my PBs , but getting two minutes off is unrealistic in the time I still have before the Champs begin . On the other hand , the qualifying standards for the Commonwealth Games just after that have not been released yet , and I hope I can make it , but I won ’ t be heartbroken if I don ’ t make it this time . It will give me something to work towards in coming years . If I can get my track times down , I hope I can make it to the 2024 Olympics in Paris , so in 2023 I ’ d like to race in Europe , and closer to 2024 , I will focus on speed on the track , while using cross country for strength , because I love running cross country .”
Cian ’ s Highlights
We asked Cian to choose her top 5 performances from an incredible last 18 months , which have brought her 23 new personal bests on track and road .
All smiles with Murray & Roberts clubmates Kyla Jacobs and Carina Viljoen
Looking Past the two big global meets this year , Cian says her focus for the rest of the year will be on the SPAR and RUN YOUR CITY races . “ I am hoping to run all the races in both series , and I also want to run the cross country league events in Central Gauteng . One problem is that the CGA Cross Country Champs is on the same day as the SA 10km Champs , but I ’ m still going to focus on the 4km distance in the league races and try to win the SA title again , while balancing that shorter work with racing 10km on the road . Next year , the national cross country trials are early in the year , and I want to try qualify for the World Cross Country Champs , so that will be a big focus for the second half of this year .”
She adds that she is also thinking about giving the half marathon distance a real go as well , having run that 1:16 last year at SA Champs and finishing seventh , but is in no rush to run any further than that . “ My goal at the beginning of year was to focus on the 21km , do well at SA Champs and make the SA team for the World Half Marathon Champs later this year , but then I was unexpectedly selected for the African Champs , so in the end I didn ’ t race the SA Half Marathon Champs . But I ’ d still like to try qualify for the World Champs , so I will be looking to find a fast 21km , and perhaps I can still do it . Even if I don ’ t make it this year , I will try again next year .”
1 SA Half Marathon Champs ( May 2021 ) “ I went into race hoping for a 1:19 , as it was just two weeks after the track season ended , so George said go conservative , but I felt great from the start and actually broke my 10km PB along the way . That 1:16:53 was a big breakthrough .”
2 SPAR Grand Prix Pietermaritzburg ( August 2021 ) “ This was my first time in the SPAR Series , so I was nervous to race the top SA women , but I finished sixth and broke 35 minutes for the first time , breaking through another barrier .”
3 SA Cross Coutry Champs ( September 2021 ) “ Winning the SA 4km title gave me my first national title , and I won by a clear margin of 100m .”
4 Absa RUN YOUR CITY DURBAN 10K , inc SA 10km Champs ( October 2021 ) This was my first time going sub-34 . It was an exciting , but hard race – I actually felt the Half Marathon Champs earlier in the year had been easier . I had to work hard for that sub-34 , but that made it feel even better !
5 SA Senior Track & Field Champs ( April 2022 ) The SA Champs actually gave me my two best performances of the year – breaking 16min in the 5000m in April after setting myself the target to only do that by the end of the year , and then clocking 33 minutes in the 10,000m , put moved me to fifth on the SA all-time list . I hit my splits perfectly , going through 5000m in 16:37 , when the target was 16:40 . Earlier in the year I couldn ’ t even run a 5km in that !
Strong Murray & Roberts contingent at the 2021 SPAR Grand Prix race in Gqeberha
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