Tough marathon for Zim runners

Games marathon courses here in London.
At the on-going London Olympic Games, Juwawo and Nyasango will represent Zimbabwe in the men’s marathon on the last day of the Games on August 12 while Tavengwa will carry the country’s flag in the women’s event this coming Sunday.
And the three Zimbabwean runners must be at their best if they are to mount any strong challenges in their races as the London 2012 marathons will be run over a challenging and technical course that shows off London at its very best, according to the woman who helped design it.
Unlike the majority of previous Olympic Games marathons, the London 2012 races will not start and finish in the Olympic Stadium but, instead, on The Mall, London’s grand ceremonial parade that stretches from Buckingham Palace along St James’s Park to Trafalgar Square.
The athletes will run one 3.571 kilometre (2.2miles) loop followed by three circuits of 12.875km (eight miles) to make up the marathon distance of 42.195km (26.2 miles).
The main loop traces a narrow, curling route along the north bank of the River Thames to the Tower of London and back via the Houses of Parliament.
It takes in many of the most famous sights and monuments, including Trafalgar Square to St Paul’s Cathedral, via the glass-clad office blocks of the City to the grand state halls of Westminster and Buckingham Palace.
The route includes long, straight stretches along Victoria Embankment plus numerous tight corners and U-turns at Westminster Bridge and the Tower of London.
Lisa Thompson, course director of the London Marathon who was brought in to organise the Olympic version, yesterday described the course as difficult but exciting.
“The idea was always to showcase London at its best and include almost every major landmark in the route,” Thompson said at Press briefing here yesterday.
“It is challenging and technical, but I think it will make London look amazing. London has some incredible buildings and we have managed to include most of them in the route, even the Monument,” she said, referring to the 61-metre Doric column, near the northern end of London Bridge, built to commemorate the 1666 Great Fire of London.
After one short loop around St James’s Park, the marathon runners will run under Admiralty Arch and past Admiral Nelson, in Trafalgar Square, home of pigeons, protests and numerous celebrations over the last two centuries.
They will cross the north end of Whitehall, avenue of government departments and site of King Charles I’s beheading in 1649, then left on to Victoria Embankment for the long swoop along the Thames.
Across the river, to their right, is the London Eye, the tallest ferris wheel in Europe, used by more than three million people a year to get a bird’s-eye view of the city.
There is an uphill gallop to Queen Victoria Street and a sharp left to St Paul’s, Christopher Wren’s architectural masterpiece.
The runners pass through Paternoster Square, home of the London Stock Exchange, and on via twists and turns through Cheapside, past the Guildhall and the Bank of England and into Cornhill, named after ancient hills that formed the original settlement.
A sharp turn takes the runners into the covered Leadenhall Market. Originally a poultry market, this elaborate structure dates from the 14th centrury, but sharp viewers may recognise its ornate roof and cobbled streets from the film Harry Ptter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Another sharp right brings the runners back into Fenchurch Street by the Lloyds Tower, home to Lloyds of London insurance company since the 1980s.
Here runners are in the midst of old London, where the original Roman staging of Londinium was sited. After the U-turn by the Tower of London, the course dips down to Lower Thames Street before the steepest uphill section to Canon Street.
“I’s not that steep but it’s steep enough,” Thompson said. “If I was going to put the boot in, this is where I’d do it.”
A welcome downhill stretch at White Lion Hill takes the runners back to Victoria Embankment for the return to Westminster and the 19th century Gothic palace, known as the Houses of Parliament.
The course skirts the south side of St James’s Park along Birdcage Walk, around Queen Victoria’s memorial in front of Buckingham Palace and back to the start line on The Mall, where the annual London Marathon finishes.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwean female marathon runner Tavengwa arrived here on Wednesday morning and quickly got down to business as she prepares for this Sunday’s tough women’s marathon event of the London Olympic Games.
Tavengwa flew into London from her training base in Kenya on Wednesday morning and went straight to a practise session which saw her running 20km.
And Tavengwa said yesterday that she was feeling “great” and was more than ready to take on some of the world’s finest long-distance female runners in Sunday’s marathon in London. I’m really (feeling) fine and it feels good to be here at the Olympics getting ready to represent Zimbabwe in the women’s marathon and I don’t think I’ll be hit by any stagefright during this race.
“In fact, I’m feeling great and I promise to give a 100 per cent or even 130 per cent effort in this event . . . I really want to carry the Zimbabwean flag sky high in this race, come Sunday,” Tavengwa said yesterday.