Zimbabwe's Comrades challenge

2007-06-06 18:51

Johannesburg - Following some impressive results on this year's road running calendar the Zimbabwean athletes are now looking to challenge and rival the greats in this year's Comrades Marathon to be run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban on June 17th.

While many of the faster athletes will chase the good prize money available in the Nedbank Marathon series, a band of their countrymen will be attempting the big race next Sunday.

On top of this list must be the Om Die Dam 50km race winner, Sipho Ncube who will be running for Mr Price. Ncube has certainly been having a good season this year.

He raced in KZN with a fourth in the Savages Marathon in 67 minutes and a victory in the PDAC 25km. He also placed second in the Pretoria Marathon in a time of 2:30 as a training run for him, six days prior to his Om Die Dam victory.

The Comrades distance may be a factor for Ncube but he has upped his training mileage along with his Mr Price teammate, Paul Mhiza who will also be challenging the 89.3km ultra-marathon next Sunday.

Mhiza has been doing distance work including a 32km run the day before the Loskop 50km Marathon, where he finished ninth. The next weekend he was in KZN racing the Mr Price Indian Ocean Marathon where he finished fourth in 2:25, being a fast paced race.

The other Zimbabwean racing in Mr Price colours is Shingirai Badza who was 12th in the Loskop Marathon and third in the PDAC 25km.

All athletes have been focused on the Comrades and realise that it is a major race on the South African calendar which catches the attention of all potential sponsors having a mass of supporters.

Given their commitment, and backed up by the results, the Zimbabweans certainly pose a threat to all other runners going for Comrades Gold next week.

- SAPA