Author: Modern Athlete

Did we catch you at the Modern Athlete point at this year’s Om Die Dam?

There’s something of a buzz ahead of the first SPAR Women’s 10km Challenge in Cape Town on Sunday.

Most of South Africa’s top women runners will be taking part in the race, which starts outside the Cape Town Stadium and ends on Greenpoint Common. The defending champion, Diana-Lebo Phalula, will not be running, because she will be on her way to represent South Africa at the world cross country championships in China, but her twin sister, Lebogang, who won the Durban and Johannesburg races last year, will be taking part.

Other former Cape Town winners, Rutendo Nyahora and Rene Kalmer, will be aiming to win back the Cape Town bragging rights, while two-times Grand Prix winner Irvette van Zyl, who did not compete in Cape Town last year because of injury, could provide some stiff competition. Other top runners taking part include Jenna Challenor, Zintle Martin (nee Xiniwe), and Christine Kalmer.

While their immediate aim will be to win the Cape Town race, the top runners will also be laying down their markers for this year’s Spar Grand Prix. Five runners have won the Grand Prix title in the eight years since it was launched, but it has gone to four different women in the last four years. Van Zyl won for the second time in 2011, and Rene Kalmer clinched her third Grand Prix title in 2012. Mapaseka Makhanya had the year of her life in 2013, sweeping to an overwhelming Grand Prix victory, and last year, Diana-Lebo Phalula won the title, despite having to deal with a serious injury for much of the year.

The prize money for the Grand Prix has been boosted to a whopping R150 000, with the runner-up pocketing R50 000, and the third-placed runner R30 000, so there is plenty of incentive for the top runners to compete in as many Challenge races as possible.

The Grand Prix is won by the runner with the most points after the five Challenge races – in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Pretoria and Cape Town – have been completed. Bonus points are awarded for record-breaking finishes, and there are also prizes up for grabs in the various age group categories.

The streets of Illovo, Melrose and Birdhaven will once again come to life with the 12th annual J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge Challenge® taking place at the Wanderers Club on Thursday, March 26.

A highlight on the Johannesburg calendar, 13,000 runners, joggers and walkers from 227 companies will gather for corporate camaraderie and world-class entertainment – all for a good cause. J.P. Morgan will be donating race proceeds to the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation for the second consecutive year as part of its corporate responsibility.

To ensure the safety of all participants, the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department has approved temporary road restrictions during the race between 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm.

We would like to reassure residents that we will make every effort to ensure as little as possible disruptions during this time.

Race route description and detail:
From the runners and joggers start line:
Start in Venus Street, close to corner of (c/o) Greenacres Drive, run down Venus Street (north to south), away from The Wanderers Club, and turn left into Tyrwhitt Avenue, right into Melrose Street.

From the walkers start line:
Start in Wingfield Avenue corner of (c/o) Greenacres Drive, turn left into Greenacres Avenue, right around park, continue with Greenacres Drive and turn right into Melrose Street. The two starting groups merge 200m before the 1km mark. From here the route is the same for all.

Merged race route:
Runners and walkers make their way up Melrose Street, right into Cecil Avenue, left into Tyrwhitt Avenue, right into Tottenham Avenue, right into Jameson Avenue, left into Tyrwhitt Avenue, left into Reform Avenue, left into Jellicoe Avenue, right into Jameson Avenue, right into St Andrew Street, right into Bute Avenue and left into Venus Street and onto Finish line in The Wanderers Club.

Residents are kindly requested to make use of the following three access streets into the Melrose and Birdhaven areas during the Temporary Road Restriction periods.
• Into North Street from Oxford Road (avoid Rudd Road)
• Into Greenacres Drive from Edgewood Avenue and Melrose Street
• Into Cecil Avenue from Glenhove Road

Lebogang Shange proved on Saturday in Dudinska, Slovakia with his victory in the IAAF 20km Race Walking Challenge that once he is in the “zone” there is no stopping him.

His winning time of 1:22:44 is just 54 seconds slower than his South African record performance of the previous weekend. Brazil’s Andres Choche was second in 1:23:20.

Shange actually reached another milestone becoming the first South African to win a race in the IAAF Race Walking Challenge-series. The series started in 2003.

“As I started the IAAF race in Slovakia, I asked God to walk with me. He stayed by my side until I crossed the finish line and WON the race,” is what an elated Shange posted on his Facebook afterwards.

Marc Mundell also from the High Performance Centre (hpc) made sure that he qualified for the World Championships in Beijing by finishing 10th in the 50km walk. His time was 3 hours 56 minutes and 47 seconds.

The hpc athlete really has been on a roll over the last three weeks. His success story started with him breaking the South African 3000m track record (11 minutes and 20.39 seconds) at a league meeting at Tuks. He continued his SA record breaking spree a week later when he finished second in a time of 1:21:50 in a 20km race-walk event in Lugano, Switzerland.

The plan was for Shange to compete in one more European race next weekend but Chris Britz, his coach, think that he has made enough of an impact on the international race walking scene and that he should return to South Africa to recover a bit before getting down to serious training again.
“With his victory in Dudinska Lebogang has gained a valuable 12 points in the Race Walk Series. As part of his built up to the World Championships in Beijing he will be competing in a few more of the Challenge-races.

Britz has no doubt that Shange is capable of walking even faster times.
“Lebogang has improved by leaps and bounds in the last year. Two years ago he was not able to finish at the World Championships in Moscow. That left him very despondent.
“One of the major challenges I faced when I started to coach Lebogang was to get him to believe in his abilities. That meant that he used to have a very conservative approach when he raced. He would only start to up the pace over the last few kilometres when he felt sure that there is nothing that could go wrong.

“It is only now that he is confident enough to make the racing and set the challenge to other walkers to keep up with him if they don’t want to get dropped.”

Akani Simbine came on Saturday at the Athletics Gauteng North Championships at Tuks oh so close for the second time in eight days to breaking 10 seconds in the 100 metres when he won his semi-final heat in 10.04 s.

Actually it was expected that he would do so in the final but unfortunately his chances was foiled by a brief thunderstorm about 40 minutes before the final. Simbine went on to win the final in respectable time of 10.13s. He has now qualified in the 100m and 200m for the World Championships in Beijing. On Friday night Simbine won the 200m in personal best time of 20.27s.

The High Performance Centre (hpc) athlete said afterwards that the wet track was certainly not beneficial to running a fast time. “It felt to me like my feet were getting sucked into the track.”
Simbine admitted that he was capable of running a faster time in his semi-final but purposely decided not to do so.

“I slowed down after 80 metres my reasoning being that it is not worth it break 10 seconds in a semi-final especially since I could feel the wind in my back and realized a big effort might be in vain.”
The wind reading for the semi-final was 2.3 metres per second from behind so Simbine’s time of 10.04s won’t officially recognized by statisticians.

The big question now is whether Simbine will try and break 10s before he goes on to compete internationally. There was a rumour going around on Saturday afternoon that he might try and do so at the South African under-23, Junior and Youth Championships (9-11 April) in Bloemfontein because he wants to get the sub-10 second race out of the way.

Simbine however was not prepared to confirm that he will be competing in Bloemfontein.
“Bloemfontein is certainly a good venue for running fast times, but I have not yet decided whether or not I will compete in the Under-23 Championships.”

Werner Simbine, coach, said the chance of Simbine going for a fast time at the South African Championships in Stellenbosch is slim.

“The only thing that matters at a national championship is to win the title.”

With two weeks to go until the running of the Old Mutual Two Oceans Ultra Marathon on 4 April, the traditional route that runs over Chapman’s Peak Drive remains the first choice, but the back-up route over Ou Kaapse Weg is being prepared just in case ‘Chappies’ is not usable.

Following the devastating fires that raged along Cape Town’s Southern Peninsula in early March, resulting in the closure of Chapman’s Peak Drive due to the threat of rock falls, the Two Oceans organizers are still hopeful that the 56km route will follow as normal but have stressed that runner safety remains a top priority in the Easter Weekend festivities.

“We continue to be in close contact with the City of Cape Town Disaster Management team and other key role players, and keep a finger on the pulse of all developments affecting our Ultra Marathon route, especially Chapman’s Peak,” says Carol Vosloo, general manager of the Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon NPC. “Running the event over Chappies is our first choice, but with athlete safety being our top concern and with two weeks to go before the event, it is prudent to look at our alternative route as an option.”

Alternative Route

Ou Kaapse Weg is the official alternative route for the Old Mutual Two Oceans Ultra Marathon, and was used for four years between 2000 and 2003, when Chapman’s Peak was closed while the tunnels and rock fall catchment nets were being constructed. The distance will not be affected, remaining at 56km.

The Ou Kaapse Weg detour route starts as normal in Main Road, Newlands, and takes runners along the scenic South Peninsula route, through Fish Hoek and Kommetjie. However, instead of heading towards Chapman’s Peak, runners will go over Ou Kaapse Weg, then along the M42 Steenberg/Spaanschemat River Road until they join the Half Marathon route at the Ladies Mile/Parish Road intersection before heading onto Southern Cross Drive. From the top of Southern Cross the original route is back in use, along Rhodes Drive and the M3 back to UCT.

“We thank runners for their patience. While we remain confident that the scenic Chapman’s Peak route will stay in place, we hope that confirming the alternative plan will empower runners to prepare for the possibility of a route change,” says Ms Vosloo. “Again, we cannot stress enough that runners’ safety is put first at all times during our planning and decision-making.”

Is the 90th Comrades Marathon your first? Are you feeling nervous about where to begin? Are you sure you’re doing the correct training? Are you getting optimum nutrition?

If these sort of questions are on your mind, do not panic! Be Part of It and attend the Bonitas Comrades Novice Seminars at a town near you!

Over 5000 novice runners have entered the 90th Comrades Marathon. The 2015 Bonitas-Comrades Novice Seminars are designed specifically for first-time Comrades Marathon runners.

The project is sponsored by Bonitas Medical Fund, one of the major sponsors of the Comrades Marathon and South Africa’s second largest open medical scheme. These seminars are interactive and very informative.

Attendants will have the opportunity to interact with the Comrades Coach, Lindsey Parry and other experts, including a medical doctor and dietician. Among the topics to be covered are:

·        injury prevention

·        treatment of injuries

·        training

·        running shoes

·        tapering

·        race day strategies

The medical doctor will advise on how to train and run a healthy Comrades. The dietician will cover runners’ nutrition, including what to eat while training and race day sustenance.

The presentations will be as follows:

SABC race day TV commentator, Ian Laxton will open the seminar and brief the novices on relevant race information as well as the charitable aspect of The Ultimate Human Race, including details of Race4Charity.

Registered Dietician, Nicki de Villiers works with athletes and guides them to optimum nutrition to train well and achieve their running goals. Nicki has been working in the field of dietetics for around 20 years and has been concentrating on sports nutrition for the last 12 years. 

The Comrades Marathon Coach, Lindsey Parry will share valuable information regarding training, injury prevention and treatment; recovery; reasons for failure and how to prevent them; tapering and race day strategies.

Dr Sello Motaung is a medical doctor with experience in Sports Medicine and Occupational Medicine. He has travelled broadly with elite South African athletes at national and international sports events as the Team Medical Officer. He will share health tips with the runners to ensure they have a good race day.

These seminars are not to be missed. Entry is free and bookings are not necessary. BE PART OF IT – BAMBA IQHAZA!

 

DATE	DAY	TIME	PROVINCE	HOST	PHYSICAL ADDRESS
24-Mar-15	Tuesday	19h00	Central Gauteng	Boksburg Athletic Club	Sportsmans Warehouse East Rand Value Mall, Rietfontein Road, Boksburg
25-Mar-15	Wednesday	19h00	Central Gauteng	Randburg Harriers	Hoërskool Randburg, Corner of Malilbongwe and Rabie Fontainebleau, Johannesburg
28-Mar-15	Saturday	09h00	KwaZulu Natal	Nedbank Head Office	90 Bram Fischer Road, Durban
14-Apr-15	Tuesday	19h00	Gauteng North	High Performance Centre	TuksSport Athletic Clubhouse South Street, Hatfield, Pretoria
22-Apr-15	Wednesday	19h00	Cape Town	Atlantic  Athletic Club	Hamilton’s Rugby Club, Stephan Way, off Fritz Sonnenberg Road, Green Point, Cape Town
29-Apr-15	Wednesday	19h00	Bloemfontein	Nedbank Bloemfontein Achilles	Bloemfontein Achilles Sports Centre corner of At Horak and Parfitt Avenue, Bloemfontein

For more information, please email CMA Marketing Coordinator, Thami Vilakazi: [email protected]

South Africa’s AJ Calitz and Bernard Rukadza of Zimbabwe, running as Team KWAY, claimed the second and third stage wins at the seventh annual ProNutro AfricanX Trailrun presented by New Balance in Grbaouw from 13 to 15 March, which gave them the overall win for the second year running.

They completed the three stages of 34km, 34km and 22km in a combined time of 6 hours 46 minutes 18 seconds, with Eric Ngubane and Thabang Madiba of Team Salomon second in 6:51:11, while Edwin Sesipi and Johardt Van Heerden of Team 32gi Gauteng finished third in 7:07:30.

In the mixed category, Yolande Maclean and Nic De Beer of Team CW-X Ultraspire claimed a hat-trick of stage wins to secure the title in an impressive combined time of 7:40:46. Kerry-Ann Marshall and Morne Van Greunen of Team Enduro Hub came in second in 7:51:44, while siblings Natia and Antoine Van Heerden of Team Twinning finished third in 8:20:39.

Although Nicolette Griffioen and Carla Van Huyssteen of Team ProNutro Timefreight shook things up in the women’s race by claiming the third stage victory, it didn’t make much difference to the overall order as Meg Mackenzie and Landie Greyling of Team Salomon Blondies eased their way to the women’s title in 8:06:26, having opened a huge lead over the first two days in spite of Landie waking up on day two with a sore throat. Nicolette and Carla finished second overall in 8:41:56, while Inge Visser and Liesbeth Van Der Merwe of Team Ganbei were third in 9:29:34.

Varsity Athletics launched its third season in Johannesburg on Monday. It’s expected to be bigger and better than ever, with last year’s champions Tuks looking to make a strong start when the first meet takes place on 24 March in Potchefstroom. The second meet will take place on 20 April in Stellenbosch.

This year’s meetings will see a number of big names competing, including Olympic silver medallist Caster Semenya. The 24-year old will represent Pukke in the two meets.

Nine of the 19 South African athletes who participated in the Commonwealth Games in Scotland last year had taken part in Varsity Athletics earlier in 2014 – and of those nine, three won medals (two silvers and a bronze). “The fact that the athletes who took part in Varsity Athletics went on to not only compete but win medals at such a prestigious event is evidence that the quality of the competition is world class,” says Duitser Bosman, CEO of Varsity Sports.

Varsity Athletics exposes athletes to the level of competition, packed stands and noisy crowds they can expect to find wherever they travel in the world. “We believe that part of what makes Varsity Sports so great is that it exposes its participants to the kind of competitive intensity they can expect at big events,” says Bosman. “This helps them get used to the sometimes hostile atmosphere from the crowd so that they’re not overwhelmed when they have to perform under those circumstances for the first time.”

The age cut-off of 25 ensures that this platform serves as a catchment for youngsters who might otherwise fall away, while having the meets televised boosts the profile of some of South Africa’s most promising athletes.

“Without regular competition and incentive to compete, we run the risk of some of our best athletes slipping through the cracks,” Bosman points out. “By offering athletes the platform to showcase their skills and go up against other top competitors, we hope that we can keep them motivated. It’s our mission to provide a springboard for these incredibly talented athletes to launch their careers.”

Varsity Athletics meetings are conducted under the rules of IAAF and ASA, and athletes may take part in two events, excluding relays. Athletes earn points for their team according to where they’re placed. Nine points are awarded for first place, and seven for second place. Thereafter, the value of each place decreases by one point up to eight, which is worth a single point.

If there’s a tie for first place in any of the field events (except high jump), the athletes who are tied will get an additional trial. For the high jump, the standard IAAF jump-off rule applies. In the case of ties for any of the other places, the points are added up and divided by the number of athletes involved.