Glenrose Xaba will be the heavy favourite for the Spar Women’s 10km Challenge in Gqeberha on Saturday.
Xaba is currently in the form of her life, having run a new SA record over 10km in July. She broke Elana Meyer’s long-standing record of 31:13 by one second in the Absa Run Your City event in Durban. Meyer set that SA record way back in 2001.
Turning her attention back to the Spar Grand Prix, Xaba will come up against Ethiopian Tadu Nare.
Although Nare has dominated the Grand Prix series over the last three years, she will do well to keep up with Xaba this weekend.
Welcome home, the South African rose & new Totalsports Women’s Race powered by Nike Joburg Champion, Glenrose Xaba (@boxerathleticsclub )in an unofficial time of 32:48.#TotalsportsWomensRace #PinkDrive #DoWhatMovesYou #LoveTheRun pic.twitter.com/ixdaxhYaTD
— Totalsports (@TotalsportsSA) August 17, 2024
Huge payout
Nare last weekend won the first Mpumalanga Marathon in Mbombela, and with it the incredible R1 million first place prize.
Changing back to the short and sharp distance of 10km on those tired legs may prove to be something of a challenge for Nare.
However, there’s little doubt that Nare will be wanting to beat the in-form Xaba like she did in the Durban edition of the series.
Xaba currently tops the Grand Prix standings, 31 points ahead of second-placed Cacisile Sosibo.
Nare holds fourth place heading into Gqeberha, on 54 points, with fellow Ethiopian Diniya Abaraya one point ahead in third.
With 20 points on offer for victory, going down one point per position right down to 20th place, a number of permutations are possible with two races remaining.
Though Xaba, is well on track to win the series, if her two Ethiopian rivals work well together an upset could still be on the cards.
The race will be Live-streamed from 6.50am on Saturday on the Spar Grand Prix and Athletics South Africa Facebook pages.