New records set at Mandela Day Marathon
The Maxed Elite athlete, who is known for his exploits over cross country and shorter distance events, ran a well paced race to take the prestigious title in what was his debut over the marathon distance.
“I have been working and taking advice from Willie Mtolo and his group,” said Chagwe who was well off the early pace, saving his energy to capitalize on the easier and more undulating second half.
“I hope this is a stepping stone to getting a qualifier for the Olympic selection. I think I can look at a 2:12 marathon in the future because this is a very tough course.”
His efforts rewarded him with R40,000 for the course best, R50,000 first prize, R10,000 as the first South African and R5000 as the first KZN Athlete.
Chagwe’s immediate focus will be on the half marathon Petro SA in Mosselbai next month.
In a high quality field the next three athletes also broke two and a half hours with Sefako Phahlane and Kenyan Kiplimo (John) Birgen finishing in 2;28:39 and 2:29:21 respectively.
A hectic schedule saw Irvette van Zyl score record-breaking victories over both the 10km and 42km distances on consecutive days.
Having won the Spar ladies in Pretoria in a new course record time of 33 minutes 32 seconds, van Zyl flew to Pietermaritzburg and proceeded to tear apart the Mandela day marathon best time by almost 19 Minutes.
Although well off the early pace, the Nedbank athlete, saved her efforts for the second half and then got carried away over the final 10km to finish next to the Nelson Mandela Capture Sculpture in 2:47:15, becoming the first women to break three hours on the grueling Mandela marathon course.
Ethiopian Chelita Bogale Asefa was the only other woman under the three hours, while countrywoman Sisay Arsedi completed the podium in 3:03:51.
Van Zyl initially planned the race as a final long training run for the SA Marathon Championships in Cape Town on 21 September, but got carried away.
“I went about 10 minutes faster than intended: I know the coach is going to let me hear about it tomorrow, “ said van Zyl. “I feel really strong and hope to do a fast time in Cape Town, perhaps even go under 2 hours 30 minutes,” continued van Zyl who ran the final 10km in less than 38 minutes.
(File Photo:Gallo Images)