ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Awards
MODERN ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Shorter Distances – 5km to 21.1km | Women ’ s Nominees
1 Tayla Kavanagh
Tayla had a slow start to the year , after recovering from a stress fracture suffered at the end of 2022 , but went on to break the SA 5km Record on two occasions . She kickstarted her 2023 in June at the inaugural SA 5km Championships at Nasrec , winning the title with a time of 16:45 , immediately declared an SA Record because the 5km has only just been included as an official race distance by World Athletics . That time was shattered when she finished 15th at the World Road Running Championships in Riga , Lativia in October , clocking 15:50 .
3 Cacisile Sosibo
Cacisile ran four PBs in 2023 , one each for 5km and 10km , and two in the half marathon . She started the PB journey by going under 70 minutes for the first time in Gqeberha at the Nelson Mandela Bay Half Marathon . In just her second attempt at the distance , she took eight minutes off her best , lowering it from 1:17:45 to 1:09:46 , finishing eighth overall and second South African in the SA Half Marathon Championships , which were held in conjunction with the race . That earned her a spot on the World Half Marathon Team for Riga , where she duly took a further 14 seconds off her best ( 1:09:31 ), finishing first South African and 10th overall . This was followed two weeks later by her 5km PB at the Boxer Superstores 5km ( 16:11 ), before ending the year with her fastest ever 10km time of 32:47 in Mbombela , at the SA 10km Championships .
2 Cian Oldknow
In recent years , Cian has the earned the nickname Miss PB , thanks to her stream of new bests year on year , including another seven in 2023 , in distances from the 3000m to the Half Marathon . In the 10km , she broke 33 minutes for the first time in Germany at the adidas Road to Records event , clocking 32:53 , before taking four seconds off that time at the SPAR Grand Prix in Gqeberha . Then she took another 32 seconds off as she won the Hollywoodbets Durban 10km with a scintillating 32:17 ! Cian secured her spot in the World Half Marathon team by finishing third at the SA Half Marathon Championships in 1:10:48 – an improvement of more than six minutes over her previous best – and continuing in that vein , she took a further eight seconds off that time by running 1:10:08 in Latvia at the World Championships .
4 Glenrose Xaba
The ever-consistent Glenrose raked in six PBs during 2023 , five of them on the roads , three of which were over 10km , including her first time under 32minutes . Many believed that her 31:55 at the SPAR Grand Prix race in Durban was just a matter of time , so to say , as Glenrose has been quite aggressive of late in her approach to racing , going out with the Kenyans and Ethiopians in the Absa RUN YOUR CITY and SPAR Grand Prix races . At the beginning of June , Glenrose became the third-best South African in the half marathon when she won the SA Half Marathon title at the Nelson Mandela Bay Half Marathon , clocking 1:08:37 for a 50-second improvement on her previous best . She then finished 12th overall and second South African at the World Half Marathon Champs with a 1:09:47 . Glenrose finished the year with a PB in the Boxer Superstores 5km , winning in 16:03 , before taking her third SA 10km Champs title in Mbombela in November with a 32:07 .
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