Comrades could be sweet for Caroline

27 May 2015 - 02:21 By Khanyiso Tshwaku

While South African men are starting to find their Comrades Marathon groove after a period in the wilderness, their female counterparts still have a lot of ground to make up. Rae Bischoff was the last South African woman to win a Comrades, in 1998, and since then European athletes have taken over in no uncertain terms.The dominance of the Russians, sprinkled with a few Brits, has been such that the last time a South African featured in the top three was 2001, when Deborah Mattheus finished second in the down run.South Africa's most successful year from the women's perspective was 1998, when nine of the gold medal winners were South African, with naturalised South African Valentina Lyakhova finishing second.Last year there were only five South African gold medallists - led by Caroline Wostmann - as Canadian Eleanor Greenwood comprehensively broke the Nurgalieva twins' hegemony with a powerful finish.Since the 2003 race, which was won by Elena Nurgalieva, a cast-iron Russian dominance was established that South African runners have not quite been able to break, with the subsequent eight races seeing Russians finish in the top three.Nine-time Comrades Marathon winner Bruce Fordyce is backing Wostmann, who won this year's Two Oceans Marathon eight weeks ago, to upset the applecart on Sunday - but cautioned against writing off the Nurgalievas."There is a chance there could be a South African winner, but the Nurgalieva twins will always remain favourites along with the strong-running Eleanor Greenwood," said Fordyce."Wostmann does have a chance, but winning the Two Oceans could count against her because that race takes a lot out of you. The Nurgalieva twins didn't take part."But 1995 victor Shaun Meiklejohn was a lot less optimistic, citing the foreign contingent's hardened professionalism as one of the reasons why they have owned the race."We don't have many South African ladies who are in a position to dedicate time to running," he said."In a lot of cases they are mothers, wives or they have other priorities. Also, the majority of them are not professional athletes."But I hope we could see a bit of a surprise with Caroline Wostmann because she is a mom, a professional and a very good runner."..

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