Thousands of runners tackle successful Deloitte Challenge

The running gods blessed athletes with excellent conditions for Sunday’s Deloitte Challenge along the M4 highway hosted by the Dolphin Coast Striders.

Nearly 6000 runners turned out for the race.

A flat route, cool winds and overcast skies greeted runners tackling the 42,2 km starting outside the Ballito Lifestyle Centre, and the 21,1km starting outside Sibaya Casino, with both culminating at the Amphitheater, North Beach.

Being the hosts, The Dolphins limit themselves to only ten runners in this event so that the rest of the club could work at the various stations of the run.

This means that a lot of their top runners did not take part. The first Dolphin to cross the 42km line was Ian Sampson in a time of 3:33 with Pippa McGregor following him at 3:37 and Carlo Botha ending the race on 3:54.

Meanwhile, in the 21km run Trygve Wang finished in 1:59 while Trevor l’Ons and Pam Holton made it in 1:59 and 2:04 respectively.

Many of the Dolphins’ best runners were “buses” on the day – meaning they committed to running in a certain time (eg. sub 4 or sub 5) so that other runners challenging themselves for a specific time could stay with them.

Verulam Falcons’ Mzwanele Shabani completed the marathon in 03:03 to claimed an overall 41st place, while Benson Masuku was the second Falcon in the marathon in a time of 03:42. Both Mmeli Alex Ngcobo (03:45) and Lindiwe Hlongwa (03:57) displayed their consistency and endurance with an under four hour finish.

>>  Expect to find the latest trends in Health, Wellness and Beauty in Ballito.

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