Accomplished marathon athlete Louisa Leballo, the sixth woman home in last year’s Two Oceans Marathon, is to run the third leg of the world’s most lucrative athletics race in Mumbai this Sunday (January 21).
The Standard Chartered Greatest Race on Earth, a tough four-leg relay marathon being contested in four countries over a five month period, carries a total prize purse of $1, 5 million.
Pretoria-based Leballo is in the South African team competing in the Women’s Team Challenge category with cash prizes amounting to $200 000. The winners are calculated on the cumulative times of the four participating athletes. The team is also eligible for consideration in the Performance Awards category with cash prizes of $55 000.
Billed as “the historic race” due to the architecture and other landmarks that are a testimony to the Indian city’s rich past, the Mumbai marathon will almost certainly be contested in hot and humid conditions following a flattish course on some of the city’s major highways and roads that will be closed to traffic for the event.
Leballo has followed a comprehensive training programme in preparation for the Race, featuring a high mileage component in November and more recently an emphasis on speedwork. In the week leading up to the Mumbai leg of the Greatest Race she has reduced her training programme by 60 percent, as is the norm prior to a major marathon.
Her coach for the Mumbai leg of the Greatest Race has been Nick Bester, himself a former Comrades Marathon winner. He expects his charge to do well: “Louisa is well prepared and has the ability to run the marathon in 2 hours 42 minutes, or better,” said Bester.
“While the road closures make seconding a tad difficult, the Mumbai marathon is a well-organised race. Also, while we have prepared for the heat factor there is the possibility it may not be quite as hot as anticipated.” he added.
Fellow champion athlete, Farwa Mentoor, ran the first leg of the Greatest Race in Nairobi in October last year, finishing in ninth position, and Riana van Niekerk the second leg in Singapore on December 3 in a time of 2:55:45.
As a result of a faulty microchip in van Niekerk’s running shoe neither her participation in the Race or her official time was recorded by the microchip. There is however photographic and other evidence to substantiate her run.
Due to this technical glitch the official placing of the South African team after the completion of the first two legs of the four-leg marathon is still to be confirmed by the Race organisers.
The fourth and final leg of Standard Chartered’s Greatest Race on Earth will be contested by Gloria Baebo in Hong Kong on March 4.
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