It is the first time since 2012 that an athlete has been able to duplicate René Kalmer’s feat of winning four of the five Spar Women’s races. Van Zyl’s dominance led to her winning the Spar Grand Prix Series for a second time.
She was victorious in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban, allowing her to secure the series in Joburg. Unfortunately she could not race in Pretoria due to an injury.
She certainly caught everybody off guard when she attacked within the first kilometre to take the lead. Once in front there was no stopping her. She increased her lead stride by stride to win in 34:58. Mapaseka Makhanya crossed the line in second place, 48 seconds adrift, followed by Rutendo Nyahora (Van Zyl’s teammate) a further 14 seconds later.
In the build-up to the race Van Zyl was certainly not brimming with confidence. In fact she was quite doubtful about how she might perform as she was not sure whether she had fully recovered from the stress fracture that forced her to withdraw from the Olympic Marathon in Rio.
“When we lined up at the start I decided that I was going to run my own race and what will be, will be. I gained quite a lot of confidence when I raced up the first hill and I could hear the laboured breathing of some of the other athletes behind me. The goal I set myself was to try and run a time faster than 35 minutes, as it would mean that I would gain extra bonus points that would help to clinch the Grand Prix Series.”
According to Van Zyl there was only one stage during the race where she doubted her aggressive tactics for a moment or two.
