Glenrose Xaba broke a long-standing South African road running record with a compellingly fantastic run in the Absa RUN YOUR CITY DURBAN 10k that delivered numerous other milestones this morning.
Though she finished outside the podium top three positions, the Boxer Athletic Club’s fourth place was still fast enough to see her slice a second off Elana Meyer’s 23-year-old 31:13 mark.
Just last week, the legendary Meyer had lamented the fact that her record was still standing.
“I am really surprised that with all the technology, it is 23 years later and the SA records for the 10km/15km half marathon, 5000, 3000 are still standing. Throughout my career I worked really hard but I think the advantage now is you really have technology in the shoes and that has contributed globally to where many records have been broken,” Meyer told SABC Sport.
Well, at least one of those has eventually been broken and by a runner Meyer had long predicted as the one with the best potential to replace her as the holder.
Xaba went into this Sunday’s race in high spirits after running a 31:57 in the Durban Spar Ladies Race late last month and had expressed her desire to run a fast time. And with a handful of East Africans on the start list for the route renowned for its fastness, all Xaba had to do was hang on to the foreign contingent and fast time was hers.
She did exactly that and while they ran her out of the podium positions, they’d dragged her along to South Africa’s greatest 10km run ever. Xaba crossed the finish line in 31:12, to improve her previous Personal Best by a massive 43 seconds while taking one second off the national record that had appeared unbreakable.
“I am very excited to break the record of Elana Meyer because she told me when I was still young and running under her development program Endurocard that I have too much oxygen in my lungs and that one day I will run one of her records. I want to thank my team, my coaches Caster and Violet Semenya, my manager Leroy, Puma for organising me the fast shoes before the race and Michael Meyer for inviting me to the race.”
Kenya’s Christine Njoki won the race in 30:37, the fastest time ran by a woman on African soil while Debash Desta was runner up 23 seconds behind her while Judith Kiyeng of Kenya completed the podium positions with her 31:10.
In the men’s race, the irrepressible Elroy Gelant lived up to his title of favourite when he reigned victorious in 27:47 ahead of his Boxer Athletic Club teammate Kabelo Mulaudzi who ran a Personal Best 27:53. Thabang Mosiako was third with a 27:54 for a rare podium clean sweep by South African runners to end the east African domination on a morning when five men dipped under the 28 minute mark in the race for the first time in a local race. Paris Olympic-bound Stephen Mokoka finished fifth with a 27:56.
The story of the day though was Xaba’s magical record run.