By Stephen Granger
The Two Oceans marathon, to be run over 56km on Saturday, is shaping up as a classic confrontation between the pedigree distance racers and the ultra-marathon work-horses.
While the Comrades marathon, just short of 90km, strongly favours the latter, the greatest race in the Cape is short enough to attract some of the stars over shorter distances.
No doubt the record prize money of R150 000 apiece to the male and female winners played a role in bringing the likes of Abner Chipu, Mluleki Nobanda, Nollies du Toit and Simona Staicu to the Two Oceans starting line.
The question is whether they will have the strength to last the distance over some of the city's classic hill climbs, including Ou Kaapse Weg and Constantia Nek.
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Were the race run over 42km, few would bet against one of Chipu and Nobanda.
Johannesburg's Chipu has competed with considerable success internationally over distances ranging from 10km to the marathon. His gold medal in the SA half-marathon championships in 61min 50sec in 2001 and runner-up place in the Philadelphia 21km last year clearly underline his ability.
Nobanda is of similar ilk, with a 10th place in the world half-marathon championships in 1999 (62:17) as well as 10km and marathon bests of 28:19 and 2:12:13 respectively to add weight to the claims of the 2003 Cape Town half-marathon champion.
But a lot can happen in those last 14km, which is where the "work-horses" will make their challenge.
Two-time Comrades winner and 2000 Two Oceans runner-up Vladimir Kotov's focus is on the Comrades in June, but he is a class ultra-runner.
Willie Mtolo, one of South Africa's best-loved athletes, won the Two Oceans in 1990 in 3:10:51 and returned more than a decade later to place third last year. He would like nothing better than to repeat his 1990 victory on Saturday and, at 38, still has the form to do so.
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