Bosman Proud to Top SA Runners at Comrades

Having set herself a goal of a top-10 finish in the week leading up to her debut Comrades Marathon, Charné Bosman will relish her fifth-placed finish, in a time of 6:53:34, for the ultra-marathon up-run from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, on Sunday, 2 June, 2013.

Finishing best of the South African women home in unseasonally warm weather, the team Bonitas runner was the crowd favourite when it was clear that her chances for the top home runner’s finish were in the mix, despite never having passed the 50km mark in a race before.

The women’s race was won for an incredible eighth time by Elena Nurgalieva in a time of 6:27:08, who lead the all-Russian winner’s podium ahead of her sister Olesya Nurgalieva, and Irina Antropova in third place.

Putting aside concerns about the Russian sisters’ form after a shaky Two Oceans appearance this year, the two set out from the finish line in their trademark strong finish, a performance that saw the two cross the winners’ tape more than 15 minutes ahead of the bronze medal-winning Antropova.

Zimbabwe’s Thabisa Tsatsa looked a certain top-ten finisher early in the race, her Veterans entry putting her in a strong third position two hours into the race, but she was unable to maintain her start, and slipped away from the reckoning as the heat intensified.

At a similar time Bosman was looking remarkably calm with all of South Africa’s hopes on her shoulders, and she kept those hopes alive at the halfway mark, taking on extra water to prepare for the toils ahead.

Britain’s Joasia Zakrzewski pipped Bosman on the finish straight for fourth position, and were it not for her debut appearance in the world-renown race, Bosman may well have taken the fourth spot had she been aware of the danger lurking.

Bosman was the first of four South Africans in the top ten, with Melanie van Rooyen finishing in eighth place ahead of 2012’s top SA woman finisher, Kerry Koen, with Julanie Basson rounding up the top ten places in a time of 7:21:01.