Toti AC conquers Two Oceans ultra marathon
It was a special race for Tracy and Raymond Hair, as they celebrated their 14th anniversary by running Two Oceans together both for the first time.
AMANZIMTOTI Athletics Club’s walker Cornel Van Antwerp won a silver medal at the KZN master champs.
Cornel has been selected to take part in the SA masters champs in Rustenburg on 25 and 26 April.
The club wishes him all the best for his race.
This year’s Two Oceans ultra-marathon was run in near perfect conditions, with warm weather and a strong SE wind pushing the runners home to the finish at the University of Cape Town. For the novice runners, the highlight of the day was the run up Chapman’s Peak with the stunning view along the climb. Mention must be made of Charles Botha who finished his 22nd Two Oceans Marathon. This is a great achievement, well done on achieving this great milestone. Charles ran his first Two Oceans in 1989 and ran his 15th ultra marathon in Toti AC colours in 2004.
It was a special race for Tracy and Raymond Hair, as they celebrated their 14th anniversary by running Two Oceans together both for the first time. They really enjoyed the race and made good time. “The scenery just made all the effort that more worthwhile and our favourite part was Chapman’s Peak. We were very fortunate, it was not too hot and the little gusts seemed to assist us more often than not. The support for Toti was similar to what I experienced with Comrades and there were a good few KZN club runners taking advantage of the long weekend and a lot of international runners. It was a very social race and the Cape welcomed all the runners with open arms.”
21km results: B Binnekade 2:36, M Groves 2:36.
56km: C Botha 6:55, O Botha 6:28, C Carr 6:15, R Hair 5:54, M Leck 6:54, S Razak 5:10, K Wren 5:54.
Thanks to Jan Botha from RWFL Toti for setting up a great 8x8km training run for Comrades. The runners were spoilt with great hydration and plenty of snacks which kept the hunger pangs at bay.
A large group of Toti AC athletes arrived from 4.30am to start the first 8km laps. The weather was kind for most of the morning until the sun made an appearance and it got very hot and humid for the athletes still on the road.
With less than 40 days to go before Comrades, club members will be doing their last long run at Sunday’s Chatsworth 52km race. Entries will be taken on Saturday morning at Chatsworth Athletics Stadium. Toti AC has organised a Comrades bus to take athletes to the start in Pietermaritzburg. Members pay R50 and non-members R80. Pay Belinda soonest as there are limited seats available on the bus.
Karen Sobrino finished the Boston marathon in a time of 3:18:29. “The atmosphere and crowds were amazing. I ran in my Toti vest and had hundreds of people cheering for me – just a pity it couldn’t make me run faster,” she said.
