South African runner Glenrose Xaba will no longer run the second leg of the Spar Women’s 10km Challenge which will be held in Durban in June following her acceptance of an invitation to run in the European race in July.
Glenrose (31), who holds the record of being the first black female runner to win the Spar Grand Prix Series three times, finished second in a time of 31:38 in the first leg of the Spar Women’s 10km Challenge in Cape Town in March. She was left behind by Tayla Kavanagh who clocked 31:33.
It was highly anticipated that in the second leg on June 27, Xaba will be able to return the batons from Tayla who runs for the Hollywood Athletics Club.
So his absence may affect his chances of defending the Spar Grand Prix Series title he won last year.
“Yes, I will not run the Spar Durban because of my preparations for the European race that I have been invited to on July 4. Running in the Spar Women’s may hinder me because I will need legs that are not tired to face that (European) race,” said Glenrose, who confirmed that she will run the third leg of the Spar Women’s 10km Challenge in Pretoria on August 1.
“I’m going to this European race because they invited me, they saw something in me. So you can’t pass up an opportunity like this if you want to be a top-level runner.
I need to have legs that are ready to compete with other runners in that race so that they will be able to invite me again in the future.”
Glenrose, who runs for the Boxer Athletics Club, has not revealed the name of the 10km race he will run in Europe because his managers and organizers have not officially announced it.
“It will be difficult for me not to run Spar Durban because I will be behind in points, but I will make sure that I work hard to get to Spar Tshwane ready,” continued Glenrose, who lamented the postponement of the Absa Run Your City Cape Town 10km a few weeks ago due to strong winds.
Glenrose, who holds the women’s record of 2:22:22 in the Cape Town Marathon 42.2km, which she recorded in 2024, will not defend her title in this race which will be run in Cape Town tomorrow morning.
Also last year in October, he missed this race – which was eventually postponed due to strong winds – looking to run in the Valencia Marathon, Spain, where he fell asleep.
In April, this runner finished third in the 42km Instabul Half-Marathon, Turkey.