Durban SPAR Women’s Challenge set to take over Durban this Sunday
The 34th SPAR Women’s Challenge takes place around the scenic part of the city, with the routes taking participants around the stadium precinct and along the beachfront. The prize purse of the race is unprecedented, and the elite runners will be battling it out to earn valuable SPAR Grand Prix points.
THE Comrades Marathon is done and dusted, but Durbanites have another iconic road race to look forward to – the Durban SPAR Women’s Challenge, which starts and ends at the Hollywoodbets Kings Park Stadium outer fields on Sunday morning.
The Durban SPAR Women’s 10km Challenge and 5km Fun Run are back to their pre-Covid glory, with thousands of women taking to the streets in an atmosphere of fun and laughter.
But while the majority of the thousands of runners are taking part in the race for fitness and fun, the elite runners will be battling it out for top honours and to earn valuable SPAR Grand Prix points. Sunday’s 10km race forms part of the prestigious SPAR Grand Prix series which attracts an entry each from South Africa and Africa’s leading women road-running athletes.
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Boxer’s Glenrose Xaba became the first South African in five years to win a SPAR Challenge race when she dug deep to win the Cape Town race in March, beating Ethiopian runner Diniya Kedir Abaraya (Nedbank) by seven seconds.
Xaba and Abaraya are both running on Sunday, and the battle for the finish line will be fierce. Joining them on the start line will be the defending SPAR Grand Prix champion, Tadu Nare (Nedbank), the sensational Ethiopian athlete who is making her first Grand Prix appearance this year after missing the opening series Cape Town race due to an injury.
Other top runners in contention include the Phalula twins, Lebogang and Diana-Lebo, who, like Xaba, are former SPAR Grand Prix winners, and Cacisile Sosibo (all from Boxer); another former SPAR Grand Prix winner, Kesa Molotsane (Kovsies), and three-times winner Irvette van Zyl (Hollywoodbets), who finished second in the Two Oceans Ultra-Marathon and who has been selected for the fourth time to represent South Africa in the women’s marathon at the Olympic Games in Paris next month.
Photo: Reg Caldecott
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The 10km route is fairly flat, but race director Brad Glasspoole says it is anything but boring.
“There’s a fine line between flat-and-fast and boring. This route has slight elevation loss and gain, which keeps it interesting and is good for the athletes,” says Glasspoole.
Glasspoole explained that the first 1.5km from the start line on Masabalala Yengwa Avenue, heading north and turning right into Athlone Drive, towards the Indian Ocean, is a gentle downhill with a 1m loss in elevation.
“Runners then have a 1.5km climb, with an elevation gain of 8m, on Snell Parade while running alongside Durban’s famous promenade and with spectacular views across the bay towards the harbour. The highest point of the route is at Sunkist, 9m above sea level,” he said.
This is followed by a very fast 5m loss in elevation as runners complete the last 800m on Snell Parade before turning away from the ocean at Suncoast and heading towards the iconic Moses Mabhida Stadium on Battery Beach Road.
“Then there is a sharp left turn on the south-bound lane of Masabala Yengwa Avenue, with an undulating route towards KE Masinga Avenue, circling Kingsmead Cricket Stadium at 3m above sea level. Then they will climb 5m in elevation adjacent to Kings Park Athletics stadium at 9.4km before a sharp 4m drop, finishing on the Kings Park Stadium outer fields,” says Glasspoole.
The good news for the thousands of women who have entered the race is that there will be a lucky draw, with one of the runners winning a Proton X50 SUV worth R450 000. The first South African on the SPAR Grand Prix leaderboard after all five races will also receive a Proton X50 SUV to drive for a year.
Sunday’s Durban race starts at 08:00 and will be livestreamed via the SPAR Grand Prix and SPAR KZN Women’s Race Facebook platforms. It’s the second race of the five-race SPAR Grand Prix series, boasting a prize purse of R2 million, making it the richest women’s-only 10km series on the continent.
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