By Ntokozo Magongo
MBABANE – 15 runners from Zithande Athletics Club have also left the country for the Comrades Marathon to be held on Sunday from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
They join the 35 athletes from the Golden Foot Club (GFC) who also left the country for the same marathon that will see over 20 000 runners from the all over the world taking part.
The 97th Comrades Marathon will be the 49th up run starting at the Durban City Hall and ending at the HollywoodBets Scottsville Racecourse in Pietermaritzburg.
The race will start at 5:30am and finishes 12 hours later and will cover a distance of 85.91 kilometres. It will be broadcasted live on SuperSport.
Zithande Athletics Club Coach Nsizwa Thwala confirmed that they will be sending a team of 15 athletes from their team.
“All of this year’s Zithande Comrades’ marathon runners are up run novices. Nice Comrades Marathon has been a down up for the past two years. The comrades when it starts from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, it’s an up run and when its starts from Pietermaritzburg to Durban, it’s a down run. This time around we are facing the up run as it starts from Durban to Pietermaritzburg,” he said.
Thwala said it was only him who have done it before but his team-mates have nothing to worry about because they have been given the best training programme. He said their programme runs for seven months.
“One of the reasons we have some many novices, as we are a developing the team. We make ordinary people to extraordinary runners. We have 15 Runners. We are leaving Friday morning for Durban. I expect to continue with the Good Comrades marathon run with my team as proven over the pass years,” he said.
Zithande athletes to Comrades Marathon:
- Nokuthula Mkhabela
- Elaine Thring-Hulett
- Bakhe Mdluli
- Maxwell Nzima
- Themba Vilakati
- Mbuso Dlamini
- Musa Dlamini
- Sifiso Matsentjwa
- Clayment Mngometulu
- Dumsani Kunene
- Mpendulo Shongwe
- Muzi Simelane
- Bonginkosi Makhanya
- Siza Dlamini
- Thami Maseko
