In-Steyn! Gerda Steyn decimated the rest of the women’s field to win her maiden Comrades Marathon title in a new ‘up’ run record of five hours, 58 minutes, 53 seconds (5:58.53).
She became the first female to break through the six-hour barrier in the ‘up’ run while becoming the first woman since Frith van der Merwe in 1989 to win the Comrades and the Two Oceans titles.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/ComradesMarathon2019?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ComradesMarathon2019 #DailyNewsSA #IOL pic.twitter.com/n94DZigH49
— Anelisa Kubheka (@AnelisaKubheka)
Steyn chopped more than 10 minutes off Russian athlete Elena Nurgalieva ‘up’ run record of 6:09:23 she set in 2006.
She finished 17th overall finishing ahead of 2016 men’s Comrades winner David Gatebe, who clocked 6:00.16.
The 29-year-old Steyn was in dominant form taking the lead 30 kilometres into the race moving past defending champion Ann Ashworth. She went through the halfway point almost two minutes ahead of Ashworth.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/ComradesMarathon2019?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ComradesMarathon2019 #DailyNewsSA #IOL pic.twitter.com/Kq8juOIb8v
— Anelisa Kubheka (@AnelisaKubheka)
Russian athlete Alexandra Morozova finished second nearly 20 minutes behind Steyn with a time of 6:17.40.
Top 5 Women's Elite https://t.co/Q4MKib8gxX pic.twitter.com/bYufiDe6uK
— ComradesRace (@ComradesRace) June 9, 2019
Steyn was tipped to break the 13-year-old Comrades ‘up’ mark after winning the Two Oceans in equally dominant fashion missing Van der Merwe’s course record by less than a minute.
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