Organisers of the Comrades Marathon are expecting between 18000 and 19000 runners to line up at the Durban City Hall for the 90th anniversary of the greatest ultra-marathon of them all.
Inaugurated on May 24, 1921 in memory of those who fell in the First World War, the race has taken place every year since but for five during the Second World War. Confirmed as 87.72km for the route between Durban and Pietermaritzburg, this year’s race will be one of the longest in its history by around 800 metres on account of road works in and around Pinetown.
Defending champion and winner of last year’s down run, Bongmusa Mthembu (Faku AC) will be running towards his home town on this occasion where he is assured of massive local support.
Claude Moshiywa (Nedbank Running Club), the 2013 up run winner, is back after a disappointing year of injuries hoping to repeat that success, while his Nedbank clubmate, 2012 winner Ludwick Mamabola, who was cleared of alleged doping that year, will be keen to regain top place following his runner-up performance to Mthembu last year.
Also back is three-time winner – 2009, 2010 and 2011 – Zimbabwean Stephen Muzhingi, running in the colours of Fast Way and looking to make it four wins.
There are also several new faces on debut such as 30-year-old Mabuthile Lebopo (Maxed Elite), who won the Two Oceans ultra in one of the fastest times of three hours and six minutes in 2010.
There are a couple of interesting novices, including two young Americans, Max King and Sage Canaday.
With most of the clubs boasting at least seven or eight runners, competition for the coveted Gunga Din men’s team trophy promises to be keenly contested with Maxed Elite and Nedbank pre-race favourites.
There is R1.5-million up for grabs for beating the record of 5:24.47 set in 2008 by two-time Russian winner Leonid Shvetsov.
Every winner of the up run bar Alberto Salazar in 1994 has run faster from Drummond at the halfway mark to the finish than from Durban to Drummond, which calls for runners to climb almost 1200 metres from sea level.
This strategy is one that is likely to be adopted by defending women’s champion Eleanor Greenwood (Nedbank), who will have to be strong-willed not to chase Russian twins Elena and Olesya Nurgalieva, who have dominated the women’s race for the past decade.
Greenwood outwitted the twins in last year’s down run when she had some gas in the tank in the closing stages.
Scotland-born Greenwood, who is the 100km world champion, was knocked off her bicycle in March in her home town of Vancouver and suffered a severe fracture of her right hand which cost her three training weeks.
“But this may prove to be a blessing in disguise,” she said at yesterday’s media briefing, “although it was frustrating.”
This year’s women’s winner of the Two Oceans, Caroline Wostmann, will carry the hopes of South Africa, along with her Nedbank teammate Charné Bosman, who is likely to be her closest challenger for the first SA runner to finish.
Missing from the women’s race this year will be former SA marathon champion Riana van Niekerk, who earlier this week withdrew from the race following diagnosis of cancer of the liver and pancreas.
All members of the Nedbank women’s team will be wearing pink ribbons in support of Riana’s new challenge. - Saturday Star