Glenrose Xaba shatters SA marathon record on debut in Cape Town

Glenrose Xaba smashed the South African women’s 42.2km record as she won the Cape Town Marathon in her debut over the distance. 

Xaba clocked 2hr 22min 22sec to see off Mare Dibaba Hurssa of Ethiopia by 14 seconds. Kenyan Pascalia Chepkogei was third in 2:22:49.

The 29-year-old’s effort also knocked nearly two minutes off the 2:24:03 mark set by Gerda Steyn in Valencia in December last year.

Sowetan's Neville Khoza reports the 29-year-old led a pack of eight athletes, and she managed to shake off the last of her pursuers in the chase for the title to become the first South African woman to win the marathon since 2010.

Her performance brought to an end a spectacular year that saw her win the Spar Women’s Grand Prix, while she also broke Elana Meyer’s long-standing South African women’s 10km record finishing fourth in 31min 12sec behind three East Africans at the Absa Run Your City event in Durban in July.

“I’m very excited about my [marathon] debut. At 33km I felt that now I’m running more than I used to run but I kept my focus because my pacemaker was there,” Xaba told SuperSport TV after Sunday's Cape Town race.

“At 36km, he told me to remain focused and keep going. At 40km, I saw Dibaba pass and I knew I had speed, so I used that because we were close to finishing.”

Xaba said her focus now is to run the 5km for her club Boxer Super Run in Pretoria on November 10 before she takes a well-deserved rest.

“The plan now is to rest and do the last 5km for Boxer to give back to them because they are the ones who take care of me. Then I get enough rest to become fresh for next year.”

In the men’s race, Ethiopia’s Abdisa Tola Adera won in 2:08:16 with defending champion Adane Kebede Gebre finishing as runners-up. Melikhaya Frans was the first South African man home, finishing fifth in 2:12:18.