Glenrose Xaba gives SA record a shake at SPAR Grand Prix race in Gqeberha
Pretoria’s superstar road runner, Glenrose Xaba, not only kept her hopes of being crowned the overall winner of this year’s SPAR Grand Prix alive this past weekend, but also won the SPAR Women’s Race in Gqeberha with a personal best time over 10km.
Defending series champion, Pretoria’s Glenrose Xaba, stayed in the hunt to retain her overall title by winning the penultimate leg of the SPAR Grand Prix in Gqeberha on Saturday.
Achieving the second fastest 10km time of her career, Xaba (who was third in the series standings ahead of the race) secured victory in 31:17 in the colours of Boxer Athletics Club.
While Karabo More (Boxer) tried to go with the early pace, by the time they reached the 3km mark, her training partner Xaba had only Ethiopian athlete Selam Gebre (Nedbank Running Club) for company.
Then Gebre was dropped shortly before halfway as Xaba started to wind up the pace, opening a massive gap in the second half to cross the line just five seconds outside her own South African record of 31:12.
Photo: Michael Sheehan
More fought hard in the closing stages to reel in Gebre, taking second place in a personal best 32:21, with the Ethiopian hanging on for third in 32:33. The top seven finishers all dipped under 33:30, achieving bonus points in the Grand Prix series standings.
Xaba admitted she was a little disappointed to miss her national record, after realising she might be within reach in the closing stages, but she was pleased to pick up maximum points in the race for the series crown, and she was satisfied with her performance on a newly designed course in Gqeberha.
“I was not sure that I was on record pace while I was running, but with 50m or 100m to go I saw I was within that time, and when I crossed the finish line, I was disappointed because I just missed it. I led from the gun because this was only my third race in the series this year and I’m chasing points, so I’m glad everything went according to plan. The route was very fast, and I think it can produce multiple records in future,” Xaba said after her impressive victory.
Do you have more information about the story?
Please send us an email to bennittb@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram
