The world’s largest ultra, the Comrades Marathon in South Africa, was run on Sunday, June 2nd, for the 88th time. This hilly road course direction alternates and this year was the ‘up’ run, starting on the coast in Durban and finishing higher up inland at Pietermaritzburg for a total of just over a double marathon at 87.3k (54.3 miles). The rolling course has approximately 6,600 feet of ascent and 4,700 feet of descent with five major hills but not much flat running in between.
It’s been fully live-televised nationally in South Africa for years and offers a massive prize purse – winning with a course record and sponsor bonuses grosses over US$100,000 with money stretching down to 10th. The top 10 men and women receive medals made of actual gold. More details about the race can be found in our last year’s pre-race article.
That kind of incentive always leads to a furious race at the front with insane speeds for the fastest runners, but this year it ended in a more comfortable margin for the winners than in recent years. The top 10 men were spaced out over 10 minutes last year, but that was almost the gap between first and second this time. Plus the dominant Russian twins, Elena (eight wins including this one) and Olesya (two wins) Nurgalieva, continued to obliterate the competition with no women within 16 minutes of them at the end. Unfortunately, Ellie Greenwood was unable to run due to injury after finishing second and only a minute back last year.
The up run course records remained intact as follows:
- Men: Leonid Shvetsov (Russia) – 5:24:49 (2008)
- Women: Elena Nurgalieva (Russia) – 6:09:23 (2006)
Initial Men’s Results (subject to drug tests)
- Claude Moshiywa – 5:32:09
- Jonas Buud – 5:41:21
- Mpesela Ntlosoeu – 5:43:38
- Ludwick Mamabolo – 5:45:49
- Johannes Kekana – 5:46:27
- Henry Moyo – 5:46:52
- Joseph Mphuthi – 5:48:00
- Mike Fokoroni – 5:50:11
- Rufus Photo – 5:51:52
- Stephen Muzinghi – 5:52:38
Initial Women’s Results (subject to drug tests)
- Elena Nurgalieva – 6:27:09
- Olesya Nurgalieva – 6:28:07
- Irina Antropova – 6:44:36
- Joasia Zakrzewski – 6:53:29
- Charne Bosman – 6:53:35
- Marina Zhalybina – 6:56:55
- Holly Rush – 7:04:21
- Melanie Van Rooyen – 7:08:09
- Kerry Koen – 7:15:07
- Julanie Basson – 7:21:02
