The 2018 SPAR Women’s 10km Challenge series has reached the halfway point and the SPAR Grand Prix is still wide open.
The Pretoria Challenge, the fourth race in the six-race series, takes place at Supersport Park on August 4 and elite runners will be doing their best to claim a stake in the Grand Prix.
Defending champion Kesa Molotsane appeared to be cruising to victory until the third race in Durban in June, where she had an off-day and Zimbabwean Betha Chikanga surprised everyone by leading from start to finish winning the race.
Glenrose Xaba, who finished second in all three races so far, moved into the lead, two points ahead of Molotsane, who won the Cape Town and Port Elizabeth races, but finished sixth in Durban. Xaba has 57 points and Molotsane has 55.
Another Zimbabwean, Rudo Mhonderwa, is in third position, with 51 points, having finished fourth in all three races.
Chikanga said after her victory in Durban that she hoped to take part in all three again.
“We thought she would fade after a while and when we realised she wasn’t going to fade, we had left ourselves too much work to do to close the gap,” said Nolene Conrad, who finished third, behind Chikanga and Xaba.
“We’ve run with her before and we won’t let her get so far ahead again.”
Xaba recently won the Totalsports Women’s 10km race in Durban in 33.41 minutes, and several of the elite runners were in action in the South African half-marathon championships in Port Elizabeth at the weekend. Chikanga finished in seventh position and was followed by Mhonderwa, Lebogang Phalula and Christine Kalmer.
Conrad, who missed the first two races because of international commitments, will be aiming to improve her position. She and three times SPAR Grand Prix winner Irvette Van Zyl are currently in joint 15th place, having each missed two races, but they are both expected to move up the ladder in the last three races.
Following the Pretoria race on Saturday, the SPAR Grand Prix Series moves to Pietermaritzburg on August 19 followed by the last race in the 2018 series in Johannesburg on October 7.
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