‘If you can’t run walk, if you can’t walk crawl’: Challenor relives Comrades moment

30 August 2022 - 16:07
By Marc Strydom
Jenna Challenor crawls to the finish of the 2022 Comrades Marathon at Moses Mabhida Stadium on August 28 2022.
Image: Darren Stewart/Gallo Images Jenna Challenor crawls to the finish of the 2022 Comrades Marathon at Moses Mabhida Stadium on August 28 2022.

Jenna Challenor, the fourth-placed finisher in the 2022 Comrades Marathon, has relived the moment when her legs gave up on her and she had to crawl the last 10m to 20m over the finish line on Sunday.

Challenor, 41, of the Murray and Roberts team and Elite Athlete Development Programme, provided one of the moments of the race when she started to cramp entering the tunnel at Moses Mabhida Stadium and crawled the last stretch to the finish line.

“If you can’t run walk, if you can’t walk crawl. There was no way on earth I was giving up my hard-fought fourth-place gold medal for anything. That was brutal but I am proud,” she tweeted.

“Through it all, the highs, the lows, the pain, I kept smiling because in the end I am doing what I love and for people I love.

“SA you are incredible. Thank you for the support.

“The Comrades took all of me. To say I left it all out there is no lie.”

Russian Alexandra Morozova won the women's down run in 6 hrs 12 min 42 sec to improve on her previous two runners-up positions.

She was followed home by Dominika Stelmach (6:25:08) of Poland. Murray & Roberts’ Adele Broodryk was the first South African home (6:26:34) for a third-place finish.

Teammate Challenor, making her down run debut, was fourth  in 6:42:14.