Jury out on Comrades winners
2007-06-11 11:20
Durban - The jury is still out on who will win this year's Comrades Marathon.
As the local athletes have got smarter and learned to race less, the task of picking a winner has become more akin to the national lottery, although this one will definitely start outside the Pietermaritzburg Town Hall on June 17 with Max Trimborn's cock crow at 05:30.
The down run tends to favour the local athletes, who are far more fleet of foot than their international counterparts who have almost grown up with a diet of 100 and 160km races which tend to slow their body down.
One thing is for sure, Frans "The Rabbit" Chauke will lead the field out. He has been known to succumb to "white line fever" when the guns goes off, although he has the talent to win if he is allowed to get far enough ahead.
The list of potential winners extends way beyond 20 athletes with former down run winners Sipho Ngomane and 2003 winner Fusi Nhlapo, perhaps heading the list determined to prove he is not a one race wonder.
Amongst the ever growing brigade of international athletes that plunder our shores for treasure and then disappear with the spoils as quickly as they turned up, 1999 winner Jaroslaw Janicki, the last international athlete to win the down run, looks to be worth a gold bet with his four gold medals.
Possibly the man with the best chance of victory, mainly due to the fact he is a far better down runner, is last year's runner up, Brian Zondi (5:37:32) who ended up almost two minutes shy of Oleg Kharitonov, due mainly to his inexperience when he misjudged the location of Polly Shorts.
Experienced Capetonian, Neo Molema, has been mentioned by several pundits to have a fair chance after a good showing at the Two Oceans ultra, however there is a persistent rumour doing the rounds he has tested positive for substance abuse.
The women's event is a different ball game altogether.
The race amongst the local lasses is not for the R200 000 first prize, but for the first South African home and if any of them have a superb day, a possible top five placing.
The Eastern Europeans have dominated the race for years and this year will be no different, except that the almost impregnable armour of the Nurgalieva twins has shown a few tiny cracks and Belarusian, Madina Biktogirova, has already landed the first blow beating both on her debut at the recent Two Oceans.
As a Comrades debutant the 42-year-old will rely on the support of country women Alena Vinitskaya, to see her through her first trip down the long road between Pietermaritzburg and Durban. With a best placing of a fifth in 2003 she would be a valuable ally.
So what of the local girls? Based on current form Riana van Niekerk seems to be the one to watch, with a very productive last five months behind her in which she claimed the bronze in the national marathon championships plus wins in the Om die Dam and Loskop ultras and a first in the Indian Ocean Marathon with a personal best of 2:43:00.
The slightly built Pretoria-based girl is no stranger to hard work but several of the pundits approached, such as Nike Running manager Rowyn James, feels she may well have over raced.
Farwa Mentor has been the first local lady home since the internationals started their dominance and there is no doubt she will continue delivering her solid "banker" type performance.
After Mentoor, Yolande MacLean has been the most consistent performer with four golds to her credit but this year has not delivered the string of victories she has had in previous years.
This may work in her favour as she may be better rested but it also may indicate she is not as focused as she has been in previous years, but come June 18 all will be revealed.
- SAPA