Xaba too good for the rest in Pretoria’s SPAR Women’s Race
The forerunners in the SPAR Grand Prix were in a fierce battle in Saturday's SPAR Womens Race Pretoria, the third last leg of the 2018 series.
Eastern Cape road running star Glenrose Xaba increased her lead on the SPAR Grand Prix points table when she won the Pretoria SPAR Women’s Race in Centurion on Saturday afternoon in a time of 33 minutes and 56 seconds.
Zimbabwean Rutendo Nyahora (34:24) ended second, while Xaba won another round in her rivalry with Kesa Molotsane, who had to be satisfied with the third place.
Irvette van Zyl finished in the fourth place. Van Zyl’s performance was remarkable considering that she gave birth less than two months ago to her and her well-known Olympic athlete husband LJ van Zyl’s second son.
Participants in this year’s race could enjoy glorious spring weather. However, moderate windy conditions definitely had an influence on the performances of the leading athletes.
The race was once again the highlight of the SPAR Grand Prix series and nearly 25 000 Pretorians took to the streets of Centurion, which was turned into a stream of teal colored shirts. Although it is a women’s race, as usual men also turned up in their hordes to participate. In line with the tradition of the race, most of the men did their bit for charity by taking part in the women’s race decked out in wigs, dresses and in some cases also high-heel shoes.
As usual the fun at the SPAR Women’s Race Pretoria did not end with the race itself. Long after the action on the streets of Centurion was over, athletes and spectators could enjoy top class entertainment at the SuperSport Park stadium in the form of performances by several well-known and popular artists.
This unique race is distinguished from all other road races by the extraordinarily large number of participants, as well as the fact that it is the one event on the annual calendar where serious athletes are overwhelmed and by far surpassed in terms of numbers by thousands of once-off participants, mainly because of the charity supporting culture of the event.
However, this race has become an undeniable part of Pretoria’s road racing culture and hopefully all the participants were inspired to continue exercising for next year’s race.
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