Irvette van Zyl and Cacisile Sisobo won the Totalsports Women’s Race in Johannesburg and Durban respectively on Wednesday as the country marked Women’s Day celebrations.
Runners and walkers of all shapes and sizes painted the streets of the two cities pink as they ran in the race colours to mark this day reserved to celebrate the female members of the community.
Van Zyl, a South African road running veteran whose achievements make her a darling and role model of many athletes, was in splendid form as she beat the competition in Johannesburg to win the race in a time of 34:58. Now running in the colours of Hollywod Athletics Club, Van Zyl beat Rutendo Nyahoro to second place while Lebo Phalulla completed the podium in Johannesburg,
Out in Durban, Phalulu’s teammate at Boxer Athletic Club Sosibo reigned supreme when she clocked a fast 33:31 on the flat course, leaving both rTyla Kavanagh who won last year and Comrades Marathon gold medallist Jenet Mbele in her wake.
Van Zyl, who was champion of this race from 2007 to 2010 as well as in 2017, was understandably delighted with her victory having only recently returned from an injury-induced break from the road.
“I am chuffed with today’s race. I had a rough start to the year due to injury, so being here today, being healthy and fit and able to enjoy running again is awesome. I’m happy to come away with the win. I really enjoyed the event. The atmosphere was great as always. It’s awesome to be here on Women’s Day, celebrating women together.”
She described her race plan afterwards: “Coming into the race, I wanted to be tactical – rake it easy on the downhills – so that I could be okay on the uphills. We stayed together until about the 5km amrk and then the break happened, I knew that the second half of the route was quite difficult and that if I could just maintain until then I could push through until the end.”
Sosibo deliberately chose to run in Durban because she knew it would be a fast race. Her club spread runners in the two cities
“I specifically entered Durban because the course is flat and the turns aren’t complicated. I enjoy this event because it’s for women and there aren’t any men that you need to compete against. So, I could just run my best and prove that women can also run. I am so happy to win today. I feel powerful! I’m a winner!”
The Cape Town event was cancelled due to the taxi strike in the Mother City.
IOL Sport