Proud Moment for SA as South Africans Win the Comrades!
South Africans are celebrating today as both the male and female winners of the legendary Comrades Marathon are South African. This is the first time since 1992! Gift Kelehe, younger brother of previous winner Andrew Kelehe (who won in 2001), and Caroline Wostman – who won the Two Oceans earlier this year – brought it home for […]
South Africans are celebrating today as both the male and female winners of the legendary Comrades Marathon are South African. This is the first time since 1992!
Gift Kelehe, younger brother of previous winner Andrew Kelehe (who won in 2001), and Caroline Wostman – who won the Two Oceans earlier this year – brought it home for South Africa in the 90th Comrades event which was held today, 31 May 2015.
Caroline said afterwards “I never ran so hard in my life!” And, according to a tweet by former Comrades multiple-winner Bruce Fordyce, she apparently ran the last 7km faster than any man or woman today.
Another female star today is Hazel Moller who ran 10 Comrades in 10 days…running the 90km Comrades distance each day consecutively for the nine days leading up to today, and completing today’s actual Comrades Marathon. She did it all for charity. Please donate here if you can: www.ten10.co.za.
Gift, who came third last year, completed today’s race in 5:38:36 with Mohammed Husien from Ethiopia in second place (5:46:14), and fellow South African Hatiwande Nyamande in third with a time of 5:48:19.
Both first and second place for the women went to South Africans – Caroline who completed the race in 6:12:22 and Charne Bosman behind her with a time of 6:33:24. Elena Nurgalieva from Russia came third (6:40:36).
The Comrades Marathon is the world’s oldest and largest ultra-marathon and is run over a distance of approximately 90 km between Pietermaritzburg (the capital of KwaZulu-Natal) and the coastal town of Durban. Each year the direction alternates between PMB and Durban, and the only time the Comrades has not been held is during World Ward II 1941-1945.
This year the race began in PMB, just like it did on 24 May 1921 when the first Comrades Marathon was ever run. Then the total number of competitors was 34. This year there were over 22,000! Congratulations to each and every one of you!
And in the words of South Africa’s Public Protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela: “To those who didn’t get the medals they aimed for remember: winners are those who keep going even when they’ve failed to achieve their goals.”