Tadu Nare stretches her lead in Spar 10km Grand Prix

Ethiopian Tadu Nare of Nedbank is running away with the Spar women’s 10km Grand Prix.

On Saturday morning in Greenpoint, the distance runner demolished the field as she led from beginning to end and crossed the finishing line in a time of 31:28 which is a record for the Cape Town race.

With her win, finishing almost three minutes ahead of second-placed Kesa Molotsane, Nare extended her lead in the Grand Prix after her win in the first race in Pietermaritzburg two weeks ago.

Molotsane finished second in a time of 34:10 which was about six seconds ahead of her Murray & Roberts teammate Cian Oldknow who completed the top three places on the podium.

“I think I could have run faster if there had been more competition,” said Nare through an interpreter. 

There will be more competition in the third race in Durban next week as defending champion Helalia Johannes, who missed the opening two races as she was recovering from competing in the Olympics is expected to be back.

In Cape Town, there was a notable absence of Glenrose Xaba, who finished second in Pietermaritzburg, and Irvette van Zyl as they are recovering from injuries and their participation in Durban remains in doubt.

“It was very cold at the start of the race, so I struggled for the first couple of kilometres. But I preferred this flat course to the one in Pietermaritzburg two weeks ago. I am training for the Barcelona Marathon in November, so I decided to go fast to help me learn to handle the pain,” said Nare who added that she found it easy to run in SA after training at altitude in Ethiopia.

Molotsane, who missed out on a podium finish in Pietermaritzburg, was delighted with her second-place finish.

“I have been struggling with injury and it feels good to be coming back to where I was,” said Molotsane who is a former Grand Prix winner.

“I also preferred this route, particularly because it was it was only two laps. I found the three loops in Pietermaritzburg difficult to cope with.”

For Oldknow, she was satisfied with her first podium finish.

“I was in ninth position at the halfway stage, but I was feeling good, so I decided to go for it,” she said.

Top Five Finishers

1. Tadu Nare (Nedbank) 31:28, 2. Kesa Molotsane (Murray & Roberts) 34:10, 3. Cian Oldknow (Murray & Roberts) 34:16, 4. Fortunate Chidvizo (Retail Capital) 34:26, 5. Patience Murowe (Nedbank) 34:31