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The Herald
10-06-2025
- Sport
- The Herald
Elite Eastern Cape runners bag PBs at Comrades
It rained personal best times for a group of Eastern Cape elite runners in the 2025 Comrades Marathon from Pietermaritzburg to Durban on Sunday. The first runner to cross the finish line with EC roots was the Xhorha-born star athlete, Sithembiso Mqhele of the Nedbank Running Club, who completed his race in 5:42:11, beating his 2024 time of 5:57:44. Mqhele said he had a good race this year compared to last year. 'I executed the plan as instructed by my coach, which was for me to run at the back of the leading bunch so that I could take on all those dropping back from the bunch. We reached all targets, even though I did not get into the top 10,' Mqhele said. Because he runs for a club affiliated with KwaZulu-Natal Athletics, Mqhele was the second provincial athlete to finish the race after Bongumusa Mthembu. Having improved his time and overall position in the race from 38th on the up run to 13th on Sunday, Mqhele said he was thrilled to take home yet another Wally Hayward medal. Mthatha's Musa Zweni, who finished his race in 05:50:59, almost eight minutes better than his previous finish of 05:58:47, was the second most highly placed Eastern Cape athlete. 'I am very happy with my new personal best time. We have a three-year plan with the coach, so we have ticked one year and we continue with the plan,' Zweni said. Impala Marathon Club's Mthandazo Qhina from Qunu, who now lives in the Western Cape and has represented that province in several national competitions, completed his race in 5:56:46, an improved performance from his 6:01 time in 2024. 'I spent a lot of time at the back of the bunch, and that delayed me,' Qhina said. 'If I were in the front, the top 10 would not have been far. I could have made it because the people in the top 10 are the same people I was training with. 'Getting into the top 10 was not difficult for me, but the only problem was that the coach said I must be at the back with my other teammate who was in the top 10 before.' Another Nedbank Running Club athlete, Lulamile Danile, recorded his personal best with a 6:24:53, improving his previous finish of 6:17:40 in the race. Danile said he was excited to run his personal best time and will now focus on improving. Zwelonke Athletic Club's Thulani Sidziya hit the finish mat at the People's Park in Durban in 6:44:21, taking home another silver medal, in an improved time from his previous 7:16:43 in 2024. Sidziya said he planned to run an improved sub-7:00 for another silver medal. 'I came in at 6:44:21. I am very happy with this result because it is the result of a properly executed race plan,' Sidziya said. Hollywood Athletics Club's novice Owen Tshibo introduced himself with a 7:20:53 finish for his first run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban, his first-ever ultra-marathon. Tshibo was pleased with his silver medal time. 'To be honest, this was not my target coming to Comrades. But I set a target for something I don't know, since this was my first race. 'I am very happy to be getting this silver medal because many people don't get silver in their first Comrades,' he said. — WATCH: We are the Champions news agency
The Herald
05-06-2025
- Health
- The Herald
Mthatha athlete part of Comrades elite field
When thousands of runners line up for the Comrades Marathon in front of the Pietermaritzburg City Hall on Sunday morning, one of the elite runners at the front of the queue will be Eastern Cape-born athlete Musa Zweni. Zweni, 34, runs for Pan African Resources Club and is coached by John Hamlet, who has coached several of the illustrious championship-winning ultra marathon runners. He has been in the Comrades Marathon training camp in Dullstroom, Mpumalanga, preparing for 2025's race. Zweni said he joined the camp in 2025, and the plan for the upcoming race was about adjusting to the training approach of his new club. 'We have got a three-year plan that we are working on with my coach,' Zweni said. 'We will just tick off this year and see other years. 'But in my head, there is something else. But the coach said before I could get there, we need to get some things right,' Zweni said, adding he did not run the Two Oceans Marathon to prepare for the Comrades. Born in Tabase, Mthatha, Zweni's best Comrades time, which he ran in 2023 in the colours of Boxer Superstores Athletic Club, was 5 hrs 58 min 47 sec, which earned him the Wally Hayward medal. An injury cost him running his first comrades in 2018, but his time in the race has improved tremendously from his 2019 debut where he finished in position 2,831 in 08:56:57, earning himself a Bill Rowan medal, followed by a much-improved performance finishing in 73rd spot, earning his first silver medal in 2022 after running his race in 06:30:58. Zweni's first dream was to play professional football, but that was ended after he tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) at a tournament in 2012 in Soweto, where he was preparing for trials with a PSL club. That forced surgery, with doctors saying he would never be able to run again. His running career started in 2017 in Cape Town and he has since attracted sponsorships from top global sport brands such as Puma, Maurten Gel and Future Life. 'After that injury, I started experiencing life in the sense that I started drinking, at that time I did not even have a girlfriend because my life was about football and nothing else. 'I started experimenting with a lot of things because I felt like I had given up so much for that moment. Everything happened so fast,' he said. Several injuries linked to his ACL injury forced Zweni to hang up his football boots at the age of 26. While the transition to elite running was not smooth sailing, Zweni's competitive streak kicked in when his friend, Siyabonga Madala, introduced him to running. He finished his first 10km run in 47 minutes, ran his first half marathon in 1:36:00, and his first Sanlam Cape Town Marathon in 4:00:00 from the F seeding. — WATCH: We are the Champions
