2869

The reason for Heine-Wacker’s dominance so far is the fact that on both occasions she finished high up on the overall standings (7th in both races) and she managed to score valuable bonus points in both races for improving on the target times for junior athletes, namely the times set up in the corresponding race last year.

Although Kalmer managed to collect 10 time bonus points for her superb 33:48 in PE, in Cape Town she was coming back from an illness-induced lay-off and just went for the win. Heine-Wacker’s excellent time of 35:45 in Port Elizabeth not only earned her 7 bonus points, but it was also a massive personal best and is the fastest time by a junior athlete in the country this year.

Michelle Bartman is third on the table with 49 points. She, like Heine-Wacker, has earned maximum time bonus points in the veteran category after achieving the target times in both Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. Poppy Mlambo, last year’s overall SPAR Grand Prix winner, heads a group of SPAR races regulars in 4th spot (41 points), followed by Jenna Challenor (39), Ezbe Strydom (38) and Ronel Thomas (37).

Annerien van Schalkwyk and Irvette van Blerk, neither of whom ran in Cape Town, bounced straight into the top 10 after wonderful runs in Port Elizabeth. Van Schalkwyk (2nd in 33:52) and van Blerk (3rd in 34:39) both beat the target time of 34:52 and grabbed a maximum of 10 bonus points for their efforts. Grandmaster Sonja Laxton and Thozama April of Cape Town retained their positions in the top 10.

The remaining races in the SPAR Women’s 10km Challenge are scheduled for Durban, Pretoria and Johannesburg.