It is still early in the season and in distance running it is always risky to make predictions. Nevertheless, it will probably be safe to predict that both Irvette van Zyl and Charné Bosman will run at least one race this season that will cause a stir among spectators.
Over the past weekend Van Zyl won the Johnson Crane half-marathon in 74 minutes and 48 seconds. Bosman finished third in the marathon in a time of 2 hours 57 minutes.
The athletes, who are both sponsored by the University of Pretoria’s High Performance Centre (hpc), admit that they surprised even themselves with the times they ran.
According to Bosman she was supposed to enjoy an easy training run of about three hours.
Van Zyl said: “I was not supposed to win and should have run at a leisurely tempo. I never looked at my stopwatch and was quite surprised at the end of the race when I saw my time.”
In spite of her unexpected victory, Van Zyl is still uncertain about her goals for the season.
“Last year I made the mistake of running the wrong marathons. As a result I got hurt - not just physically but psychologically as well. To be quite honest, I just don’t feel up to running marathons at the moment. I want to run shorter races.
“Maybe trying to win the Two Oceans Half-marathon will be a good start, seeing that I have never been able to do so. But, who knows, maybe I still decide to run a marathon. I just don’t want to force anything right now.
“The fact that I am being coached by Lindsey Parry is quite reassuring. I don’t have to worry about when and where I am going to race, because those are Lindsay’s decisions. He definitely does not want me to race practically every weekend, as I have done in the past, even though it may be just for training. My next race will be the PWC Half-marathon and I shall then be allowed to go for the victory.”
Bosman hopes that her injury problems of last year will be something of the past. “My thyroid glands played up last year. That was the main reason why I did not finish last year’s Comrades,” said Bosman. In 2013 she was 2nd in the Two Oceans Marathon and 5th in the Comrades.
According to Bosman her main goal for the Comrades will again be to finish in the top five.
“I really think it is doable. I will run the Two Oceans as well, but it will be considered to be part of my preparation for the Comrades.”
**Lebogang Shange, hpc’s sponsored race walker, was in awesome form over the weekend.
He won a 10km walk in Akasia on Saturday and the Johnson Crane 21km walk on Sunday.
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