Cape Town - Lesiba Precious Mashele, the 2017 SA Cross Country Champion, was too strong for a quality field on Sunday to cross the line first in a time of 28 minutes 32 seconds at the 10km Peace Race at the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon.
Mashele was twelve seconds ahead of Jeromy Andreas of UJ.
Starting at the corner of Granger Bay Boulevard and Fritz Sonnenburg Road, Green Point, the 9500-strong field raced in near perfect conditions over the fast and flat course.
Mashele broke away from the pack in the final kilometre which included Andreas, Melamu, Timoteus and former SA Marathon Champion, Benedict Moeng. Positions two to four were split by a mere second.
Video: Robin Adams
“I am in good shape right now and winning the National Cross Country title a week ago gave me great confidence. Once we hit the final kilometre, I started to push harder and was able to open the gap,” said Mashele.
The women’s races saw the favourite, Glenrose Xaba, dominate from start to finish. Xaba, who was also crowned SA Cross Country Champion in both the 4km and 10km races in Potchefstroom on Saturday, led from the gun and was never headed. Xaba clocked a personal best time of 33:24 when she came over the line on A-Track in Green Point.
“I was hoping for a PB, so I am very happy today. I have been running very strong lately, but did not expect to win so easy”, said Xaba after the race.
Stella Marais (34:59) was second, almost 90 seconds behind with Christine Kalmer (35:19) rounding out the top three.