JOHANNESBURG – The Mandela Day Marathon organisers believe it is all systems go for the eighth running of the popular two-day event in KwaZulu-Natal this weekend.
Over 20 000 participants are expect to participate across the three races as well as the Saturday events that include the children’s race, trail and triathlon as well as mountain biking.
Of those who will line up for the road races, there will be no less than a 120 international athletes - 63 of them keen to ensure that the marathon title once again leaves these shores.
Ethiopian Sintayehu Legese Yinesu won last year’s race in 2:29:11 but it would appear he will not be back to try and defend his titles as per the information released by the organisers.
According to their statement, it was not clear if there were any Ethiopians male runners among the foreign brigade that will descend upon the Umgungundlovu District this weekend.
“The international countries represented through the entries for this year’s race include 33 Zimbabweans, four Zambians, six Kenyans, 23 Lesotho nationals, four Malawians, three Mozambicans, one athlete from Russia, one from Singapore, one from the UK, four from the US and 26 Swaziland nationals, to name some of the countries (to be) represented in the upcoming marathon.”
We're now four days away from the 2019 Mandela Day Marathon #KeepRunningTheLegacy #MandelaDayMarathon pic.twitter.com/nuoCjWamF9
— Mandela Day Marathon (@MandelaDM) August 20, 2019
This interest from international runners, the organisers say, is testament to the fact that the Mandela Day Marathon is ‘gaining traction globally’.
Locally, the race is revered as one of the toughest marathons there is out there and many a runner enjoys taking it on to prove themselves. That it comes early in the season is also another reason the race attracts good numbers with most runners keen to get their qualifying for the Comrades Marathon done and dusted early so that they can focus on preparing for the famous ultra between Durban and Pietermaritzburg.
This time around, South African runners will be hoping to do better than they did last year when the best placed local in the marathon was Siyabonga Nkonde who came in at fifth place.