Tough outing for Zimbabwean athletes at Comrades Marathon

IT was a tough outing for Zimbabwe’s elite professional ultra-marathon runners and running fanatics who competed in this year’s Comrades Marathon yesterday morning in KwaZulu Natal (KZN), South Africa.

None of the Zimbabwean athletes managed to make the top 10 in both men and women’s categories of the downhill run which started in Pietermaritzburg and ended in Durban. This was the 96th edition of the Comrades Marathon.

Some of the athletes who were looking to fly the Zimbabwean flag up high in the decorated event include Lovemore Chabata, Edwin Chimombe, Shepherd Chitake, Prodigal Khumalo, Obrien Bvindi and Tabitha Tsatsa.

Over 100 Zimbabweans lined up at the starting point but unfortunately none managed to make it to the top list at this very competitive race which had over 15000 participants from all over the world.
The competition was dominated by South Africans who had a huge presence in both the men’s and women’s top 10 lists.

Veteran South African runner, Gerda Steyn, who was tipped to be the winner in the women’s category lived up to her billing, claiming her second Comrades title in a record time.
She won the race with a new mark for the downhill run of 5 hours 44 minutes 54 seconds.
She was followed by another South African, Adele Broodryk who finished in a time of 5:56:26 while in third place to complete the podium was Carla Molanaro with a time of 6:00:23.

In the men’s side, South Africa’s Tete Dijana put up a brilliant performance to defend his title, also in record breaking time of 05:14:30.
He was followed by Netherland’s Piet Wiersma with a time of 5:14:01 and in third place there was Edward Mothibi also from South Africa with a time of 5:17:34.

The 96th Comrades Marathon started at the Pietermaritzburg City Hall at 05.30am and ended 12 hours later at the HollywoodBets Kingsmead Cricket Stadium in Durban. The distance run was 87,7-kilometres and it was the 48th Comrades Downhill Run. – @brandon_malvin