South African athletes brushed off foreign challenges on Saturday, with Bongmusa Mthembu cementing his place as the country’s top ultra-distance runner and Gerda Steyn clocking a superb time to defend her title at the 50th edition of the Old Mutual Two Oceans 56km race in Cape Town.
In the men’s race, Kenyan-born French athlete Abraham Kiprotich went out hard and charged through halfway in 1:31:14, more than a minute clear of the rest of the field.
He paid for his suicidal early pace, however, and four-time Soweto Marathon winner Sintayehu Yinesu of Ethiopia took the lead shortly before the 42km mark.
But he too succumbed to the rolling hills in the second half, and Mthembu was rewarded for running a well-judged race.
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