ADVERTORIAL

After two excellent runs in the opening legs of the 2023 SPAR Grand Prix , Ethiopia ’ s Selam Gebre holds a slender lead over South African Glenrose Xaba on the overall points table . Gebre ’ s 48 points come after second place in Cape Town and then second again in Gqeberha , while the ever-consistent Xaba cashed in with a pair of third places to get her 2023 campaign off to a flying start , with 46 points .

table , while Kesa Molotsane retains her fourth position , a further five points back , and two ahead of Cacisile Sosibo in fifth . They are followed by two runners who missed the first race , but jump straight into the top seven after brilliant runs and claiming maximum bonus points in Gqeberha . The 2021 and 2022 series winner , Tadu Nare ( Ethiopia ) ran a blistering 31:35 to take the win , while Cian Oldknow ( Hollywood ) dipped under the 33-minute barrier to score 10 extra points when she finished fifth . Nare is now sixth overall and Oldknow seventh .

This year the rules have changed so that an athlete ’ s four best points scores at the end of the series count for the overall total , meaning that the likes of Nare and Oldknow need to complete three more races , while Gebre , Xaba and Makatisi can ease off and complete just two more . This means that the SPAR Grand Prix is still wide open and promises to be another thriller as we head towards October and the grand finale in Johannesburg .

While wet conditions in the Mother City prevented faster times , with none of the runners scoring bonus points , in Gqeberha it was a different story . In one of the fastest SPAR Grand Prix races in history , no fewer than eight runners grabbed valuable bonus points , five of them with the maximum of 10 points , and the other three scoring five . This meant that there was a thorough shake-up of the leading positions in the Grand Prix leader board .

Lesotho athlete Blandina Makatisi , who was fourth in the Friendly City , moves up to third on the overall

The Gqeberha race was one of the fastest in SPAR Series history

This is how the standings look after the second race in Gqeberha , with individual runners scoring points in their categories , and clubs scoring points depending on how many athletes qualified for points in these categories .

Top three in Gqeberha : Selam Gebre , Tadu Nare and Glenrose Xaba

Grace de Oliveira became the second athlete to run 100 SPAR races

is proud to be an official media partner of the 2023 SPAR Grand Prix .

47