Johannesburg - The Russians are going out of their way to put pressure on their main South African rival, Willie Mtolo of Harmony Gold running club, in the buildup to the down Comrades Marathon next Monday.
Pressure from the Russian Mr Price world team stable has been heaped on Mtolo, who gave 45-year-old running machine Vladimir Kotov some anxious moments to eventually finish three minutes down on the Belarussian in last year's up race.
Eduard Takbathullin, the 32-year-old Russian tipped as the "world team's" dark horse for the 89,7 kilometre classic from Pietermaritzburg to Durban, may enter as a novice, but he's been made fully aware of the Willie Mtolo threat in the world's greatest ultra-marathon.
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"Look, this guy (Mtolo) has run 16 marathons," said world team convener Ray de Vries on Monday. "Six of them he ran faster than 2:15 and he has never run slower than 2:21. Can he win? Damn right he can, but so can each and every athlete in our team."
'I wouldn't be coming if I did not think I had a chance to win' Takbathullin added to the psychological spin against Mtolo. "You know, we Russians don't look at the faces of other people, we look at kilometre boards and watches. After all, these are the only two factors to consider when running a race," he said.
"I cannot make any predictions for Comrades this year because I have never run the race. But I can tell you I wouldn't be coming if I did not think I had a chance to win".
De Vries said that Takbhatullin had two ultra marathons under his belt. "He's run an 80km in Mexico which he ran in 5:25 which might sound a tad slow, but this was run seven days after he ran a 2:19 marathon. He is a previous winner of the Hamburg and Siberian marathons and has a marathon best time of 2:12.
"It is a wide open race this year - probably the most unpredictable ever," said De Vries.
'The South African runners are ready for these so-called Russian bears'
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