Over 300 runners and walkers took part in the annual Mountain Drive half-marathon on Saturday, with nine
local runners finishing in the top ten.
Over 300 runners and walkers took part in the annual Mountain Drive half-marathon on Saturday, with nine
local runners finishing in the top ten.
The 21km road run, organised by Albany Road Runners,took place from the Albany Sports Club, with many runners making the trip from Port Elizabeth, as this was a league event on the Eastern Province Athletics calender.
Grahamstown’s other running clubs Run/Walk For Life Athletics Club and Rhodes University Athletics Club were well represented, while a few members from the host club ran with most of its members helping with various stages of the race.
The sunny but cool weather conditions were ideal for running the challenging 21km event which took runners over Mountain Drive.
Although conditions were good, no records were broken on the day. The first Grahamstown runner home was Simphiwe Tana (third overall), running for Port Elizabeth based Nedbank Running Club in 1 hour 13 minutes 58 seconds, while Patrick Mnto (fifth overall) of Run/Walk For Life was second local in 1:15:17.
Also making the top ten were Thembinkosi Mdyogolo of Nedbank (seventh), Melikhaya Jacobs of Nedbank (eighth) and Basie Boneparte of Albany (ninth).
Frith van der Merwe of Run/Walk For Life was the second woman home and the winner of the women’s 40 to 49 age category in 1:36:03. Also in the women’s top ten was Tamaryn Roberts who ran with a temporary licence (fifth), Jene Banfield of Run/Walk For Life (sixth), and Jennifer Coppinger of Rhodes (eighth).
Local runners took the top three spots in the 40 to 49 age category with Mdyogolo winning the category in 1:17:56. He was followed by Basie Boneparte and Carriot Galela (Run/Walk For Life ).
Overall winner was George Ntshiliza (Nedbank) in 1:12:28 while women’s winner was Marisa Ferraris (Triangle Sports) in 1:33:09.
The first walker home was Rikhotso Rooi (Limpopo) in 2:34:59 while first woman walker home was Angela Phillips in 2:56:27.
There were 300 runners who finished while 18 walkers completed the route. Andrew Slaughter of Albany Road Runners thanked Beer Property Management and Oak Cottage KwikSpar for their generous sponsorship towards the race. See the local results on Page 31.
