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Three Western Province athletes won medals in the Nedbank SA Marathon held in Port Elizabeth on Sunday. The best performance came from triple Comrades champion Vladimir Kotov, who won the title in the veterans category in 2:25:24.
Nancy Will had to relinquish the title she won in the masters category last year to Styntjie Prins from neighbouring province Boland, but still finished second to earn the silver medal. Will’s time was 3:12:25, 2:01 behind Prins.
Ursula Hiltermann, running for WP for the first time, was third in the grandmasters category in 4:28:20. Ahead of her was another Boland runner, Veronica van Niekerk. The category gold medal went to Kwazulu-Natal’s Jenny Allebone in 3:34:40. Allebone is also the national record holder.
Kotov, who has permanent resident status in South Africa (he is a citizen of Belarus), received special permission from Athletics South Africa to run for WP and justified his selection by not only winning the veterans title but also finishing as the first WP runner. His time makes him the top WP runner for 2006. Kotov runs for the Mr Price club and is the holder of the “up” record in the Comrades.
Kotov is currently busy with his preparations for this year’s Comrades Marathon, another up run (which he has won in 2000, 2002 and 2004). The 47-year-old professional runner finished fourth in the 1980 Olympic Marathon, running for the Soviet Union.
Other WP runners to finish were Bonisile Ngculana in 2:27:52, John Mboko in 2:36:52 and master Anthony Waldeck in 3:45:12. Nonfinishers were Thembelani Zola, Zolani Bhitane and Siyabonga Nqabeni.
Kotov (R2 075), Ngculana (R75), Will (R1 250) and Hiltermann (R250) became the first runners to earn money in the new incentive scheme established by WP Athletics for 2006.
Farwa Mentoor, who declined selection for WP, finished as the third South Africa woman in the race but because she was not running for a provincial team she could not claim the bronze medal. Mentoor’s time was 2:55:50.
A squad, from which the final WP team for the SA 20 km Championships on 2 July will be selected, will be chosen after the SAD Half Marathon on 1 May.
source WPA
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