Jenna Challenor crawls her way to fourth place
Third-placed debutant Adele Broodryk
ANOTHER FOREIGN WIN
In the women ’ s race , it was Comrades novice Adele Broodryk who set the early pace , reaching halfway in 2:58:09 , with a lead of 3:18 over Poland ’ s Dominika Stelmach , who was fifth in the 2019 Comrades and recently clocked World Bests in the 40-49 age category for 50 miles and six hours . Third was Russian Alexandra Morozova , who had to get a court interdict just days before the race to allow her to run after she was initially excluded from the race as a result of international pressure to exclude Russian athletes due to the ongoing invasion by their country of Ukraine .
Just as in the men ’ s race , the early leader held on until the four-hour mark , when Stelmach took the lead , but
she was then passed just over half an hour later by Morozova , who ran a superbly-judged race to win in 6:17:48 . In spite of the less than ideal final build-up to her race , the Russian finally took the win after two second places in 2017 and 2019 ( both ‘ Up Runs ’), and a third place in the last ‘ Down ’ race in 2018 . At the post-race media conference , Morozova described the race as one of her most difficult Comrades runs , and apologised , in tears , for “ all the inconvenience ” she had caused .
Stelmach held on for second , in spite of several walk breaks in the last 10km , while Broodryk came home third overall and first South African in the women ’ s race . First KZN runner was fourth-placed Jenna Challenor , who crawled across the finish line after being felled several times by cramps inside the stadium . Next was debutant Galaletsang Mekgoe of SA , followed by 2017 winner from the USA , Camille Herron , who his year has set a World Best for 100 miles , as well as 40 + World Bests for 50 miles , 12 hours and 100km .
Second-placed Dominika Stelmach with team manager Nick Bester
Murray & Roberts gold medallists , Annerie Wooding ( 9th ), Yolande Maclean ( 10th ), 37 Jenna Challenor ( 4th ) and Janie Grundling ( 8th )