Carnival’s Comrades conquerors
Seventeen of the contingent of 20 Carnival Runners who made the journey to Pietermaritzburg for this year’s edition of the famous Comrades Marathon managed to complete the mighty 89km race.
“Izokuthoba – It Will Humble You” was the slogan of this year’s event and the runners who took on the imposing challenge were left more than humbled by the down run.
Some runners, however, could not handle the demanding nature of this year’s Comrades and either fell out of the race, or missed the 12-hour cut-off or other cut-off times along the route.
Carnival’s Petros Mbokasi narrowly missed out on a silver medal (for finishers with a time between six hours to sub seven hours and 30 minutes).
The 45-year-old crossed the finish line with a gross time of seven hours, 32 minutes and 29 seconds missing out on the silver by mere minutes to receive a Bill Rowan (for finishers with a time between seven hours and 30 minutes to sub nine hours).
He placed 666th of 16 807 Comrades starters.
Lucky Seopela was the next best Carnival runner.
He crossed the finish line at Kingsmead Cricket Stadium in Durban with a gross time of seven hours, 38 minutes and 24 seconds to also have a Bill Rowan Medal around his neck.
The 34-year-old placed 725th overall.
Sipho Dumakude rounded off the Top Three for the Brakpan-based club with a gross time of eight hours, eight minutes and six seconds to earn his Bill Rowan Medal while Xolani Bavuma (a silver medal winner from 2015’s version of the race) didn’t quite match that feat as he earned a Bill Rowan with a gross finish time of eight hours, 25 minutes and nine seconds. David Mthimunye (eight hours, 25 minutes and 56 seconds) and Zamani Eric Mbuyisa (eight hours, 28 minutes and 29 seconds) were the last Carnival Runners to win Bill Rowans.
Bronze medals (nine hours to sub 11 hours) were achieved by Tseko Joseph Tsotetsi (who just missed out on a Bill Rowan by a minute and 22 seconds), Nzima Zikhali, Donovan De Leeuw, Meredith Marlow (who was the club’s first female finisher with a gross time of 10 hours, 14 seconds and seven seconds), Sandile Makeleni and Muzi Fakude. Zakes Phasha, Stuurman Mnqobani, Sam Mokgotho, Marsha Davids and Magda Botha (the final Carnival runner to make the 12-hour cut-off) achieved Vic Clapham medals (11 hours to sub 12 hours).
Chairman of Carnival Runners Coenie van Heerden said: “Our runners did awesome, it’s a pity that three didn’t make it to the end, but otherwise the rest did extremely well and we are proud of them.”
