South Africa’s elite road runners can look back on a memorable season.
We take a look at some of the highlights achieved on the road in 2024.
Glenrose Xaba (SA 42km record)
Xaba has had a magnificent season, winning the national 5 000m and 10 000m titles on the track, as well as the 10km and half-marathon titles on the road.
She also made a breakthrough at the Absa Run Your City race in Durban in July, where she finished fourth in 31:12, slicing one second off the South African women’s 10km record of 31:13 which had been set by iconic athlete Elana Meyer in Budapest in 2001.
Xaba saved her best for last, however, winning the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon on debut in October in 2:22:22. She chopped nearly two minutes off Gerda Steyn’s SA 42km record of 2:24:03.
Gerda Steyn (Comrades Marathon)
Heading into the Comrades Marathon in June, Steyn had already broken the records at the 50km Om Die Dam in Hartbeespoort and the 56km Two Oceans in Cape Town, and all eyes were on her at the start of the 86km ultra-marathon in KwaZulu-Natal.
And she did not disappoint, producing one of the best performances in the 103-year history of the race.
Steyn took more than nine minutes off her own ‘up’ run record, winning the women’s race in 5:49:46 and finishing 23rd overall.
She went on to finish 45th in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics in August.
Elroy Gelant (Olympic marathon)
One of the country’s most experienced athletes, 38-year-old Gelant displayed the form of his life this season.
He set a 10km personal best of 27:47 to win the Run Your City race in Durban, won the national half-marathon and marathon titles, and set a 42km PB of 2:08:56 in Seville.
His 2014 campaign, however, will be best remembered for his brave run at the Paris Olympics, where he finished 11th in the marathon in 2:09:07, just 11 seconds outside his career best.
Cian Oldknow (marathon debut)
When she toed the line for her first serious attempt at the 42km distance at the Seville Marathon in February, few would have predicted what Oldknow was about to do.
Running like a metronome, she finished 14th in 2:25:08, climbing to second place in the all-time SA rankings behind Steyn’s national record (2:24:03), though she later slipped to third after Xaba’s phenomenal breakthrough in Cape Town.
Oldknow went on to win the national 42km title and was the first SA finisher in the women’s Olympic marathon in Paris, taking 32nd position.
Maxime Chaumeton (10km personal best)
Chaumeton enjoyed a solid season, producing some good results on the track, but he really burst back onto the top-flight scene by clocking a lightning fast personal best.
Competing in the 10km race at the Brasov Running Festival in Romania in September, Chaumeton finished ninth in 27:36, slicing 22 seconds off his career best of 27:58 set in Durban in 2022.
He completed the race just one second outside the South African 10km record held by his training partner Precious Mashele (27:35).
* Featured image of Glenrose Xaba by Michael Sheehan/Spar Grand Prix
