THERE IS UNLIKELY to be any opposition to the suggestion that they nickname the women’s race of the Totalsports Two Oceans Marathon, powered by BYD, ‘The Gerda Steyn Show’.
How can there be, when the Hollywood Athletics Club star has made the race hers for seven years in a row now? A decade since she first ran “the world’s most beautiful marathon” in 2016 and finished in 14th place, Steyn won yet again at a canter.
There were, as usual, those who made a vain attempt at running away from Steyn early on, but they suffered the consequences later as the ‘Smiling Assassin’ overhauled them one after the other.
While her 3:27:43 time was a little outside her own record, the country’s most beloved athlete was a consummately easy victor — finishing almost six minutes ahead of runner-up Margaret Jepchumba of Kenya.
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As always, she started this morning’s race as the outright favourite and took her time to get into her stride as the early pacesetters made a vain attempt to leave her in their wake.
Steyn typically caught up with them and injected the pace to burn them off one by one until it was only Jepchumba left to challenge her. Perhaps imbued with confidence from having beaten Steyn at last year’s Soweto Marathon, the Kenyan stuck with Steyn until the full marathon mark.
But then the ‘Smiling Assassin’ shifted up to a higher gear and Jepchumba just could not cope, leaving Steyn to crest the notorious Constantia Nek alone before she sauntered into what has now become her usual procession to victory.
Cheered on by the crowd on the sides of the road, she smiled her way into the UCT Sports Ground, where she was welcomed by loud cheers from her adoring fans. Having broken the tape, she acknowledged them all — running about and touching some of them with that trademark smile of hers beaming as it always does.
Jepchumba was second in 3:33:31, while Nobukhosi Chuma of Entsika Athletic Club completed the podium spots, collapsing a few metres before the finish line and crawling over for a memorable result in 3:38:34.
