Spar Grand Prix looks to the future

The most sought-after title in women’s road running, the Spar Grand Prix, is 10 years old this year and is celebrating by looking to the future.

As part of the 10th anniversary celebrations, Spar has announced that each of the runners who have won the Grand Prix title will take a promising junior runner under their wing. This mentorship programme will involve the junior runners travelling to all five races with their mentors, and having access to advice about training, strategy and various aspects of competition.

The Grand Prix which is made up of five Spar Women’s 10km Challenge races is by far the biggest in South Africa with more than 100 000 women competing in the races held around the country. Many of South Africa’s elite athletes have launched their careers in the Challenge series such as Rene Kalmer and Irvette van Zyl.

The Grand Prix was launched in 2007 to consolidate the five Spar Women’s 10km Challenge races into a single series for elite athletes. It has proved highly successful, with South Africa’s top runners vying for the top spot and raising the profile of each of the five races which are held in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Pretoria and Johannesburg.

Five of the six runners who have won the Grand Prix have either qualified or are in the process of qualifying for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro later this year.

Kalmer has won the Grand Prix title three times and Van Zyl has won it twice. Poppy Mlambo won the inaugural title, the ebullient Mapaseka Makhanya won in 2014, and the road running twins, Diana-Lebo and Lebogang Phalula took the title in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

The prize money for the Grand Prix has been increased with the winner taking home R160 000. The runner-up will receive R53 000 and the third-placed athlete R32 000. There are cash prizes for the top 15 athletes. There are also cash prizes for the top runners in the junior, veteran, master and grand master categories. Prize money for 2016 amounts to a whopping R405 000.