Excitement builds as top-class field heads for Gqeberha

The Nelson Mandela Bay 1 City Marathon will no doubt be tightly contested as SA’s top long distance athletes continue to pour into Gqeberha for Saturday’s race. 

Athletes will be competing on a very fast World Athletics-certified 42km route which starts and finishes at Fairview Racecourse  in Greenbushes.

The NMB 1 City Marathon will be the first marathon and half-marathon on the running calendar for some time and many of SA’s top athletes will be competing to qualify for the Two Oceans and Comrades races in 2022.

Top marathon runner Sboniso Sikhakhane, who finished in eighth position in the competitive 2021 Sanlam Cape Town Marathon in 2:11:49, will be the man to watch.

Sboniso proved his running strength by competing in the Prince Magosuthu 52km Ultra Marathon and finishing in third position, and one month later, leading the pack until the 28km mark, and finishing one of the top marathons in the world, the Cape Town Marathon, with a time which qualified him for the Commonwealth team in 2022.

His coach, Mdu Khumalo, of KwaZulu-Natal, is looking forward to watching a strong finish at Fairview Racecourse on Saturday.

“We are already training for 2022, working towards the SA Marathon Champions in KZN in May, so I do not want Sboniso to go all out, but to run with the flow and see what happens at the end of the race,” Khumalo said.

He will also be bringing athletes down to compete in the 21.1km.

This team includes Bonginkosi Zwane, who took first place in the Durban International Marathon, and third position in the SA Cross Country Championships, Josiah Gumede, who came first in the Durban International Half Marathon, and Sipho Mbanjwa, who finished eighth in the SA 10km Championships.

Nedbank running club have announced that two of their top women athletes, Irvette van Zyl and Chrizell Roberts, will be taking on the marathon.

Irvette, 34, had excellent performances this year. She competed in the 2021 Xiamen Marathon and Tuscany Camp Global Elite Race, in Siena Italy, and finished in 13th position in one of her best times of 2:28:40

She competed in the Olympic Games in Japan and in May this year she crossed the finish line at 3:04:23 to be the first SA female to break the women’s 50km IAU Marathon World Record in the Nedbank Runified Breaking Barriers 50km in Gqeberha.

Chrizell, 34, achieved her best performances in the Nelson Mandela Bay Half Marathon, in May in Gqeberha, with a time of 1:22:28, and the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, which she finished in 3:02:34.

This event was last held in February 2020, when top SA runner Ntisndiso Mphakathi, competing for Entsika Athletics Club, thundered home with a huge lead of nearly 1km in 2:18:41.

Thanks to the support of the Nelson Mandela Municipality and its well-established Legacy Project sponsorship, the male and female marathon winners will each pocket R15,000 from a total prize purse of R171,000 for all marathon and half-marathon age category winners.

The 1 City Marathon organisers are inviting clubs to bring their gazebos to the venue to support their athletes at the event as the NMB 1 City Marathon will also be used to select the Eastern Province champions, for the best marathon time per category.

For more information, contact Michael Mbambani on 079-149-6796 or Irene on 083-299-1775. — Harwood Promotions