Many of the province's top athletes missed out on medals at the EP marathon championships recently, scuppered with a ruling by Eastern Province Athletics a few days before that no EP athlete taking part in the SA champs could run the full 42km.
Many of the province's top athletes missed out on medals at the EP marathon championships recently, scuppered with a ruling by Eastern Province Athletics a few days before that no EP athlete taking part in the SA champs could run the full 42km.
They were allowed to run, as long as they pulled out at the 32km mark – making them ineligible for EP championship medals. According to EP Athletics, this was to ensure they had sufficient time to recover before the gruelling national championship, in George, in February.
The provincial championship was piggybacked on the Aspen Pharmacare 42km and 10km road races in Port Elizabeth last weekend. Eastern Province Athletics said they would announce the final team for the national championships soon. In Saturday's marathon, Richard Foss of Albany Road Runners was first local in 3:22:27. Beate Stindt (Run/Walk For Life Athletics Club) and Nadine Bailie (Albany) both ran their first marathon on Saturday and John van Onselen (Run/Walk For Life) ran his first marathon in more than 19 years.
Aspen Pharmacare 42km Grahamstown results: 65. Richard Foss (Albany Road Runners) 3:22:27 153. Stephen Penney (Run/Walk For Life Athletics Club) 3:51:05 210. Beate Stindt (Run/Walk For Life) 4:04:22 212. Eric Mapara (Rhodes University Athletics Club) 4:05:10 218. Brian Bannatyne (Albany) 4:06:31 245. John van Onselen (Run/Walk For Life) 4:13:11 385. Nadine Bailie (Albany) 4:51:36 Aspen Pharmacare 10km Grahamstown results: 67. Tessa Roos (Albany) 52.27 162. Rosaan Kruger (Albany) 1:02:47
