Ren

South Africa’s golden girl of athletics, René Kalmer, notched up her 20th win in the Spar Women’s 10kmn Challenge Series on Saturday when she cruised to victory in the Port Elizabeth Challenge at King’s Beach on Saturday, in 33 minutes and 53 seconds.

On the day that featured a record number of 9 520 runners taking part in the race, Irvette van Blerk was second in 34 minutes and 7.3 seconds, followed by Nandipha Dywili in 34 minutes and 44.4 seconds.

“It was quite a tough race today,” said Kalmer, who led from start to finish. “I felt quite tired today. I wanted to go for the record, but although I was on course at 5kms, then we ran into the wind, and I just couldn’t do it.

“I have had difficulty training the past few weeks. My immune system has been down. I suppose these things happen.

“But I’m delighted that this is my 20th Spar win. I’ve won the PE race eight times now, so it really is my favourite race.

“I love the PE race — I think it’s South Africa’s most beautiful race. The route is good and it is along the coast with fantastic scenery.”

Kalmer said she would travel to Europe to qualify for the 1500m and 5000m events, and then return home to prepare for the African Championships in Kenya.

“I hope to run in the Durban Challenge. It’s on the Sunday of the African championships. I run on Friday, and if I can get a flight, I’ll get back in time for the Durban race.

Kalmer’s Nedbank teammate and training partner Irvette van Blerk finished in second place and was delighted with her performance.

“I had flu during the Cape Town race and only started training again this week, so I am very happy to have come second. I want to concentrate on road running, not track events this year, and I will be running a few road races heading into the Durban Challenge.”

A relatively unknown runner, Nandipha Dywili, finished third, and also won the Junior category.

“This is my last race as a junior, so I am very happy to have come third,” she enthused.

“I’m originally from Butterworth in Transkei, and have only been running for three years. I’m now at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria, where I have training facilities and a coach. That helps a lot, because before I was running on my own, and I used to get quite scared, but I feel safe running.

“This was my second Challenge race. My first was in Cape Town, where I came fourth.”

Kalmer’s younger sister Christine was seventh in 35 minutes 19.8 seconds, while Poppy Mlambo was eighth in 36 minutes 1.09 seconds.