Defending half marathon champion Cornelia Joubert is primed and ready to take on all comers as she puts in some final kilometres before the South African Half Marathon Championships on Saturday.
Joubert will arrive in Port Elizabeth with her Central Gauteng teammates on Friday for the much-anticipated championships, which she won in 2017 in a time of 1 hr, 12 min and 31 sec.
Joubert, one of the leading women in the elite field, said running a personal-best time was well within her reach.
“I have been preparing well for it,” she said.
“If all goes to plan, I can hopefully put in another winning performance.”
With her 2017 championship-winning time being a personal best, Joubert said she was in the right space to go out and put on a show for the thousands of spectators expected to cheer on the field – and look to improve on that time in the process.
“A lot of the training I did this year was based on similar routines I used ahead of last year’s event, with a few tweaks, of course,” she said.
“It was a great preparation for me last year and I’m hoping it will prepare me well again.”
She has no aims in terms of specific times.
“My aim is to just run my own, best race and if all goes to plan, run a personal best, or even a season best.
“Getting a top-three position would be great as well. “I love running in PE. “The course is amazing because there are spectators cheering on the runners, and even the back runners participating in the race cheer for us as we go past, ” Joubert said.
Ntombesintu Mfunzi, one of the Eastern Province’s top runners, is quietly confident she can pull off a shock when she lines up alongside Joubert and others on Saturday.
“I’m feeling ready for Saturday,” she said.
“I am actually training for the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, so we started my programme in May.
“I have been keeping track of my 10km times and I have been running it in about 35 minutes on tired legs.
“I will scale down on my training now and use this event as a preparation for the Cape Town event in September.”
Having finished the race 10th in a time of 1:17.31 in 2017, Mfunzi said she would look to better that in her bid to secure a top-10 berth.
“I am aiming to run a 1hr 15min race and my performance on Saturday will go a long way to showing me where I am in terms of my preparations for the Cape Town Marathon, and it will show that our aim of running a 2hr 40min time is indeed achievable.”
Mfunzi said running in the Bay with all the crowds and her team behind her would only boost her confidence even further.
Other local women to watch out for include Margie Saunders in the 60+ category, Christine Claasen in the 50+ division and Vicky Oelofse in the junior women section of the championship.