IT WAS a little hard to take Glenrose Xaba seriously when she described the race as “tough”.
For how tough could it really have been when she left her opposition in her wake to win the Absa Joburg 10K by a good two minutes, while also obliterating the course record by almost the same time?
The Boxer Athletics Club starlet is enjoying an incredibly good run of form which saw her winning her seventh 10km race of the year at the Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown, Johannesburg in a very fast time of 31:55, ahead of Maxed Elite’s Blandina Makatisi (34:03) and TUKS AC’s Karabo Mailula (34:14).
She was hardly breathless as she addressed the media afterwards, even though she spoke highly of the course, conditions and the opposition: “The race was so very difficult and the wind was very strong.
“I tried to maintain the pace and tried to drive when it comes to the hills, and then when it is downhill, I tried to relax and just move the legs, so I can be faster. The route was very tough.”
She also felt that her adversaries did not make it easy for her.
“The competition was very good because we had Makatisi, who is an Olympian (she represented Lesotho) at the Paris 2024 Games, Karabo Mailula my training partner, the Phalula twins (Lebo and Lebogang) ‒ all those girls who are doing well. Competition was very great, and I am appreciative.”
Xaba has been racing almost non-stop lately, and just last weekend, she won the Gqeberha leg of the Spar Grand Prix Series to put herself in line to brining the title back home for the first time since 2018.
Since then, it has been Namibia’s Helalia Johannes and Tadu Nare of Ethiopia who were champions of the women-only 10km series.
But now Xaba is sure to be the winner with just one last race left, and all she needs do is finish in the top five.
The national 10km champion and record holder ‒ she set the record in the Durban 10K in July, when she clocked 31:12 ‒ admitted that she was a little bit worried about whether she will feel the effects of the weekend’s efforts in the Windy City.
“In the morning my body was a little tired but I just managed to do very well, because I can’t cut my training as I am going to a marathon,” said the athlete who will make her debut in the standard 42.2km distance at the Cape Town Marathon.
“Supercharger”, who won last month’s Tshwane 10K in 31:51 – which was the fastest time run by a South African woman at altitude – is sure not to be lacking in confidence for that step up to the longer distance, such has been the South African half-marathon champion’s form this year.
In the men’s race, Kenya’s Gideon Kipngetich smashed the course record with his time of 28:51, ahead of the Boxer duo of Chris Mhlanga (29:13) and Kabelo Mulaudzi (29:16).