KwaZulu-Natal’s long-distance runner, Jenet Mbhele, is full of confidence for winning the Comrades Marathon tomorrow from Durban to Mgundlovu.
This year’s Comrades of 87km will start at 5 am at Durban City Hall, Durban, and end at Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg.
Jenet (30) from White City, Mzimkhulu, who runs for the Mzimkhulu Striders, is one of the black South African female runners who are doing well in long distance races who are considered for this year’s Comrades.
He will run this year’s Comrades and did well in three races in preparation for this race including the Mfundo Arnold Lushaba Half Marathon of 21km, the Harry Gwala District Marathon of 42.2km and the Zululand District Ultra Marathon of 56km.
He placed second in 1:22:59 in the Mfundo Lushaba Half Marathon, finished second in the Harry Gwala Marathon in 2:50:53, and ended up winning the Zululand Marathon in April in 4:9:51.
“I think I have prepared enough to run this year’s Comrades, so I have no doubt that I will be able to come and do well in the race.
I decided not to run other races, I only ran three which I believe sharpened me enough to prepare for Comrades which is the race I am most determined to do well in this year,” said Mbhele.
“The main goal is to enter the first ten, but if the opportunity allows me to do more than that, I will not be complacent. But this is the gold I want to bring back to this year’s Comrades.”
This lady who took the seventh place in last year’s Comrades in the down run with a time of 6:14:24, is on the verge of making history by being the first black female runner to get four gold medals in this race as she already has three.
Among the other female runners who are being watched in this race are Gerda Steyn of the Hollywood Athletics Club, Irvette van Zyl, Carla Molinaro from the United Kingdom, Domika Stelmach from Poland, and Dikeledi Majara from Lesotho.
Gerda of the Hollywood Athletics Club, who has been participating in this race for three consecutive years, holds both the records of this race in the up run and the down run.
He was the last to win the up run in 2024, recording a time record of 5:49:46.
This year’s Comrades has a sum of R8.19 million which is a 10% increase on last year’s benefits.
The runner who wins bronze in both the men’s and women’s categories will take home R925 000. These prizes include a bonus of R605 000 for the runners who will break the up run record, and another R550 000 will be won by the runner who breaks the men’s up run record of 5:24:49 by Leonid Shvestov of Russia, which he recorded in 2008, and the women’s. Gerda’s 5:49:46 record in 2024.