Toti AC conquers Arthur Creswell ultra marathon

A GROUP of Amanzimtoti Athletics Club left on Friday morning to travel to Ladysmith for the Arthur Cresswell Ultra Marathon.

The mood in the bus was sombre as the group discussed the run and times.

The group set up tent on the field, with the camp commander Belinda giving strict instructions on where the tents had to be placed and the kitchen set up. A leisurely supper was enjoyed in Ladysmith and the weary athletes were in bed by 9.30pm for an early start on Saturday morning.

Trusted bus driver Martin, who was nursing a knee injury, transported the Toti athletes to the start in the farmers hall in Bergville. For a change, the early morning temperature was bearable compared to past races with temperatures in the minus degrees.

The Ladysmith club pull out all the stops with their local race. There were tables with plenty to eat along the route, including bananas, chocolates, potatoes, jelly beans, oranges and vitamin C sweets.

The gun was fired off at 6am on Saturday morning, with the runners leaving Bergville and making the 52km journey towards the finish in Ladysmith.

The weather for the first three hours was cool but by 9am the heat started to take its toll on the runners, The first big climb comes at around 16km, at Childs Hill, a 3km climb and the last 5kms of the race is a climb before you drop into Ladysmith with a 3km downhill.

Ewoud Grobler was the first Toti man home and Antoinette managed to qualify for Comrades with a personal best on this race.

Tyrone and Marco got the nickname of Vaseline with the excessive amount of petroleum jelly that was used to prevent chaffing far exceeding the normal limit.

The general sentiment in the bus was that a lot of athletes still have a lot of homework to do before the start of Comrades in less than 50 days.

Toti AC results from the Bergville to Ladysmith Ultra Marathon: Chris Stange 4.33.08, Gary Cliff Dann 6.32.29, Antoinette Wasserman 6.19.09, Tyron Castle 6.44.12, Marco Coetsee 6.44.13, Ewoud Grobler 3.59.59, Belinda Stange 2.22.32.

Toti AC looks forward to the following upcoming races:

19 April Chatsworth Ultra; 26 April Tronox Marathon; 1 May Deloitte Marathon.

April is a precarious time for aspiring Comrades athletes. You will be tired but very strong. You must resist the temptation of running personal bests and in particular trying to improve your Comrades seeding. This will leave you tired and you will pay come race day.

At the end of April, you will also run your final long run. This is not a race and is not an opportunity to test your fitness. It is time on your feet and you must run easy. It is your final opportunity to experiment for race day. By the end of the long run you should have sorted out what shoes, kit, hat, suntan lotion, lubricant, plasters and nutrition you will run with on race day.

The official 2015 Comrades Marathon substitution process is already underway. This means that runners who were unable to enter the 2015 Comrades Marathon during the official entry period now have an opportunity to still be part of the world’s most famous ultra-marathon on Sunday, 31 May.

The process runs for the next few weeks until 21 April and allows a runner who has not entered to substitute an entrant who has withdrawn, or intends to withdraw from the race.

Substitutions can only take effect on a like for like basis, meaning SA runners can only substitute for SA entrants, rest of Africa (ROA) for other ROA runners and international runners for international entrants.

The completed application forms as specified in the Substitution Rule must reach the CMA office by 21 April. There will be no extension of this deadline and no postal applications will be accepted.

Find the form at www.comrades.com and view the comprehensive list of rules and regulations.

Toti AC produces national athletics champion

AMANZIMTOTI Athletics Club’s top juniors brought their athletics season to an end with magnificent performances at the SA junior championships in Bloemfontein this weekend.

Despite the higher altitude making things more difficult for coastal athletes in middle and long distances, the club’s athletes achieved two fifth positions by Lee-anne Blake and Lisha Van Onselen.

Lee-anne’s times in the 800m heat and final were also the second best performance by any KZN athlete competing at the championships according to the Absa points table which compares different events and age group performances. She is currently going through an aggressive growth phase and it will be exciting to see her progress once she emerges from that. Lisha finished very close to the bronze medal.

All three Toti 400m athletes who were included in the KZN team – Dwayne Trollip, Rishen Archery, and Sesimphiwe Mbatha – raised their game to the high standards set by juniors in the country and achieved lifetime best performances. Dwayne also qualified for the final in the 400m and is one of seven 400m youth boys (U17) who surpassed the International Amateur Athletics Federations (IAAF) standards for competing in the World Youth championships in Cali, Columbia, later this year.

The best performance at these championships by a Toti athlete, however, was achieved when Kelly Fletcher, who has remained unbeaten this season over 800m in all her competitions, surprised friend and foe to take the women’s U23 800m title, beating more fancied rivals with her smart tactics and powerful finish, in a new personal best time of 2:09.90. Kelly, who competes for DUT while studying but is a product of and still trains with the club, was one of only two SA champions produced by the KZN team competing at the national championships. The club is very proud of her achievement, as she was the first young athlete who restarted the junior programme at the club as a 15-year-old.