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Nineteen-year-old Ethiopian makes it four in a row at Tshwane race in SPAR Grand Prix

A young Ethiopian athlete beat South Africa's best women road athletes for the fourth time in a row when she won the fourth leg of the SPAR Grand Prix, the Tshwane race, on Friday morning at the Agricultural Research Council Farm in Irene.

September 24, 2021
Rekord Pretoria 2 minutes read
Ethiopian, Tadu Nare (Nedbank) wins the 2021 SPAR Grand Prix Tshwane on Heritage Day. Nare won the 10km race, run within the Irene Agricultural Research Council Farm over a looped route of 3 x 3.33km in a time of 32:56 minutes. Photo: Reg Caldecott

The young Ethiopian runner, Tadu Nare (running in the colours of Nedbank) retained her unbeaten record early morning on Heritage Day in the SPAR Grand Prix 10km series when she won the Tshwane race in 32.56 minutes.

The race – the fourth in the women’s only series – was run at a new venue, the Agricultural Research Council Farm in Irene on Friday morning. As it was Heritage Day, every runner who crossed the line was given a rose with a ribbon in the colours of the South African flag.

Only about 200 athletes were allowed to participate and the entries were mainly by invitation.

For the third time in the series, Boxer runner Glenrose Xaba ended in second place. She finished in 33.42 minutes.

Gerda Steyn, also from the Nedbank club, was third in 34.17 minutes, followed by her teammate and three times Grand Prix title holder, Irvette van Zyl, who was making her first appearance in this year’s series, after sustaining an injury at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in August. Van Zyl finished in 34.51 minutes.

Nare, who has to fly back to Ethiopia after every race because of Covid-19 restrictions, said she had found the race challenging.

“I did a 35km training run a week ago, so I didn’t run the way I wanted to. But I am looking forward to the last two races, in Joburg and Gqeberha next month. I think Joburg will have lots of hills but I am looking forward to Gqeberha, where I hope to do a good time on a flat course,” said Nare.

Xaba said she was very happy with her run.

“I tried to stay with Tadu, but I couldn’t keep up. She is particularly strong over the last three kilometres. But I am still determined to beat her,” she remarked.

Steyn, who was also third in Durban, said the course had been challenging, although she had enjoyed being out in the country.

“The turns were quite sharp, which was difficult, but we all have to do the same turns and climb the same hills,” Steyn commented.

The Olympic marathon athlete said all the athletes miss the energy of big crowds, but they have had to get used to it.

“I look forward to a time when we can have the crowds again,” said Steyn.

Asked whether international athletes should be allowed to compete, Steyn said it would be unfair to exclude them.

“I compete overseas, so why shouldn’t international runners compete here,” she explained her point of view.

Xaba said running against international athletes improved the standard in South Africa and gave local runners opportunities to improve.

Xaba announced earlier in the week that she was now being coached by Olympic and world 800m gold medallist Caster Semenya and that she would be supporting Semenya’s Foundation, which distributes sanitary products to girls in impoverished areas to help them to stay in school when they have their periods.

After the race, SPAR handed over 6 000 packs of sanitary pads to the Foundation – 600 for every kilometre Xaba completed.

The next race is in Johannesburg on October 3 and the final race in the series is in Port Eizabeth on October 9.

 

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At Caxton, every story is written by humans. We use AI only to perform quality checks - never to generate the news. Happy reading!
September 24, 2021
Rekord Pretoria 2 minutes read

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Koos Venter

Koos Venter is an experienced journalist who started his career 35 years ago, before the days of cellphones, modern computer systems, the internet and digital cameras, as a correspondent for Nexus, the former national magazine of the Department of Correctional Services. He has since worked for various other publications in all aspects of news coverage, as a columnist and in the production side of newspapers and online publications. Since 2007 he has specialized as a sports writer, while he is also regularly used as an analyst and commentator by several radio stations.
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