COOL CONDITIONS AT BOBBIES
Modern Athlete Bobbies Half Marathon, 10km & 5km When: Sunday 5 February Where: Greenstone Hill, Johannesburg, Central Gauteng
A spot of cold, early morning rain had one or two athletes wondering if they’ d put on the right shoes for this race, but it also meant perfect cool, overcast running conditions for much of the running of the Modern Athlete Bobbies race. Fittingly, as the racing action warmed up out on the rolling hills of the undulating route, so the sun came out to create a perfect setting for the finish at Greenstone Mall.
With the 5km fun runners still trickling in to the finish, the leaders in the 10km sprinted home, with Philani Buthelezi winning the men’ s title in a time of 32:39, while former SA Marathon Champ Cornelia Joubert claimed the women’ s race in 36:29. A bit later, having done two laps of the course, the half marathon leaders came home, accompanied by police sirens courtesy of the organising club, with Simon Maholo of Nedbank Running Club breaking the tape in a time of 1:11:07. First home in the women’ s race was Yvonne Laing of Greenstone Hill Running Club in 1:41:12.
PICK OF THE BUNCH
Pick n Pay Marathon, Half Marathon, 8km & 4km When: Sunday 12 February Where: Senderwood, Johannesburg, Central Gauteng
With temperature gauges on car dashboards registering 28 degrees and the sun beating down, the massive field for the Pick n Pay Marathon took to the streets of Edenvale to conquer one of Gauteng’ s most popular events. While the youngsters, not so fit, or not so experienced runners took on the fun runs and kiddies’ races, the single-lap half marathoners duked it out, with Pule Paul Tjaoana coming from behind to defeat Sifiso Sibandze and Vusi Nkosi, crossing the line in 1:11:56. The women’ s race proved an equally hot contest as the top three women raced neck and neck, but in the end it was Nedbank’ s Mnganiseni Emman Mathibela who took line honours in 1:29:53.
However, the marathon was the highlight of the day, with Puleng Petrus Maeko leading nearly from start to finish, only to be caught near the end and beaten by 13 seconds by fellow Rockies Road Runners athlete Zongamele Dyubeni in a time of 2:28:26. In the women’ s race, Comrades gold medallist Yolande Maclean of the Born 2 Run Club cruised to a comfortable win in 3:01:30, followed home by KPMG’ s Mary Khourie and Danka Erasmus.
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