Irvette van Zyl ready for well-known 12km race in Cape Town
Shortly after her amazingly good performance in this year's Two Oceans Ultra Marathon, Pretoria's Irvette van Zyl is back in Cape Town this weekend for a well-known 12km race.
Fresh off of her third place finish at the Two Oceans Marathon where she made Ultra debut, Irvette van Zyl has confirmed her entry into the 2019 running of the FNB Cape Town 12 ONERUN on Sunday, 19 May.
A former champion here in one of the fastest times set on the 12km course, van Zyl has every intention of getting back to her speedy ways that saw her dominate the 10km and marathon in the latter half of 2018.
Van Zyl twice broke her 10km best time in 2018, first in September where she clocked 32:49 and then narrowly missing out on breaking 32minutes, when she finished third at the FNB Durban 10K CITYSURFRUN, crossing the line in 32:05.
She then went on to smash the Soweto Marathon course record in November last year, running 2:33.43 on a brutal course that hits almost 1800m of altitude. Small wonder then that many believe Van Zyl is South Africa’s best 10km women’s athlete at this point.
It remains to be seen though just how much her legs have recovered from her efforts at the Two Oceans, in particular the bone jarring descent down Ou Kaapse Weg. Van Zyl is tough, she has proved than time and again and she has big ambitions in clocking a fast half marathon in July this year to get into Gold Label Status.
That will take some doing, so van Zyl will be looking to get her speed up, and quickly. And that has dangerous implications for the rest of the women in the field come 19 May.
“My quads were really sore after the Two Oceans. But that is out of the way now. I have immense respect for Ultra runners, but now I need to get speed up again if I want my Gold Label Status back. So the FNB Cape Town 12 ONERUN fits in perfectly with my plans,” Van Zyl said earlier this week.
She won the race in Cape Town in 2016 with a time of 39.40. Only six athletes have gone faster, four of which are international athletes. And while it may be a tall order to expect her to challenge for the podium on race day so soon after her Ultra experiences, van Zyl is simply not someone you write off. With no pressure on her, she may just spring a surprise.
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