Russian Morozova, who won court bid to compete, takes women’s Comrades

Controversial Russian runner Alexandra Morozova stunned the women's race of the Comrades Marathon by winning it ahead of her more fancied rivals on Sunday.

Morozova, who went to court to keep her place in the race, came home at Durban's Moses Mabhida Stadium in a time of 6 hrs 12 min 42 sec to improve on her previous two runners-up positions.

She was followed home in the down run some 12 minutes later by Dominika Stelmach (6:25:08) of Poland in second place.

Murray & Roberts’ Adele Broodryk was the first South African home, the novice runner clocking 6:26:34 for a third-place finish.

It was her teammate Jenna Challenor, making her down run debut, who stole the show though. The Durbanite, who was sixth in the 2019 up run finished in fourth place (6:42:14) but not before giving the crowd a scare as her legs gave up on her in the tunnel.

She held on to the perimeter advertising railings and seemed to have rediscovered her energy. But she then crumbled again before the finish line and had to crawl until the finish to rapturous applause from the crowd.

On the eve of the race Morozova won an urgent application at the Pietermaritzburg high court that she could depart with the elite cluster, not from the back, as had been proposed by the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA).

This was after her last-minute “ban” by the CMA on the grounds that World Athletics (WA) had given instructions that Russian elite athletes who will win prize money were to be denied entry to its affiliated races.

The WA’s stance is related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has resulted in fewer Ukrainian athletes being able to compete about the world as they were required to defend their country.

The court ruled Morozova would not be entitled to receive any prize money, though she argued that issue could be resolved in the future.

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.