Irvette remains unbeaten in local races
Irvette van Zyl managed over the weekend to keep her unbeaten status in road races for 2016 intact.
By winning the TotalSports Women’s 10km race in Durban in 33 minutes and two seconds on Sunday, Irvette van Zyl (Nedbank) retained her unbeaten record in local races this season.
However, she had to work hard for the victory. The Phalu twins, Lebogang and Diana, were absolutely relentless in their effort to chase her down right until the end. Only 16 seconds separated the first three athletes. Lebogang finished second in 33:05 and Diana third in 33:18.
From an Olympic perspective it is interesting to note that Christine Kalmer finished 4th in 34:50. This means that the athletes who will represent South Africa in the marathon in Rio all finished in the top four.
Van Zyl describes her race as ‘slightly’ frustrating.
“Every time I gained a slight lead and got into a nice rhythm I was forced by the Metro Police to stop dead for a second because the traffic was too hectic. I was hoping to run a time faster than 33 minutes but I soon realized it was not going to be a day for fast times, therefore my only goal was to make sure that I win. After about 8 kilometres I managed to open a gap on the twins again.
“Over the last few hundred metres I was my own worst enemy. There were quite a few mud puddles on the road and I decided that there was no way that I was going to dirty my running shoes. My ‘vanity’ cost me valuable seconds. Afterwards, when I realized how close I came to running a time of 32 minutes, I was a bit upset. If I knew I was so close to running 32 minutes, I would have run through the puddles.”
Van Zyl’s last race before the Olympic Games will be the SA Half-marathon Championships (30 July) in Port Elizabeth. It has been quite a few years since she won the title.
“I would love to win but it will be difficult because I am not going to taper down at all. Because the half-marathon will be my last tempo-run before the Olympics, I will be racing on tired legs,” the star athlete concluded.
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