Irvette van Blerk took no hostages in winning the 22nd Durban SPAR Women’s race in a new personal best time of 32 minutes 50 seconds.
Van Blerk took the lead from the gun and blasted through the first kilometre in three minutes 5 seconds leaving the country’s top athletes in her wake. Zimbabwean Rutendo Nyahora, 2009 winner Rene Kalmer and Zintle Xiniwe of Western Cape were the only runners able to hang to van Blerks tail as they turned onto Snell Parade to run down the beachfront.
With a gentle breeze at her back van Blerk visibly picked up the pace and Kalmer dropped out due to a knee injury, leaving Nyahora and Xiniwe to fight on for the podium places. Annerien van Schalkwyk maintained a solid rhythm in fourth as van Blerk led through 5km in 16:07, with local lass Tanith Maxwell gradually closing down from seven to fifth position.
19 April 2011 | Events
