Records tumble at 2018 10K CITYRUN
Filmon Ande and Irvette van Zyl broke the men's and women's course records respectively on Heritage Day this year.
Eritrean Filmon Ande broke the men’s course record at the FNB Joburg 10K CITYRUN on Monday, 24 September, while Irvette van Zyl capped an astonishing two days of racing by smashing the previous course record by almost two minutes.
The men’s race started at a blistering clip up Harrison Road, with the first kilometre covered in about 2:40 before settling down to a more reasonable pace. The first three kilometres though split the lead pack of 20 down to 10, with defending champion Thabang Mosiako, Elroy Gelant and course record-holder, Namakoe Nkhasi, in the mix. The bus, however, was being driven by Eritrea’s Filmon Ande and Uganda’s Mande Buschendich.
As the pack headed down towards the Ellis Park Sports Complex at about the 4km mark, before the first of two big climbs, it was whittled down some more, and as they hit 5km in 14:25, it was down to five runners.
By 8km, the lead was down to two, with Ande and Buschendich going toe to toe up Constitution Hill, before Ande broke away in the final kilometre, screaming home in 29:27, some 22 seconds inside of the previous record held by Nkhasi when he won in 2016 with 29:49.
In the women’s race, Irvette van Zyl was on a mission. This was her first appearance at the race and she meant business from the gun. The first kilometre was covered in 3:06. Three kilometres went by in 9:28 while 5km was covered in 16:28 as she started to hit the climbs.
By then she was running on her own in the women’s race with Susy Chebet and Glenrose Xaba, the defending champion, a good way off the pace. Comrades Marathon runner up, Gerda Steyn, was having an impressive race and was closing down on the tiring Glenrose whom she passed in the final 3km.
There was no stopping the flying Irvette, who clocked the last 2km in 3:11 and 3:08 on the descent to the finish at Mary Fitzgerald Square. She smashed through the finish ribbon in an incredible 33:51 – a massive 1 minute, 40 seconds inside the previous course record of 35:34 set in 2016.
Irvette had flown in from Cape Town the evening before the race. There she had competed in a 10km which she won in her second fastest time ever of 32:48, which is astonishing considering it’s been a mere three months since she gave birth to her second son.
“I must be fitter than I thought,” said Irvette after the race. “To run two really good times back-to-back like this means that I am reaching another level in my running. I had no idea where the other women were, so I just kept on pushing. But I had no idea I was on record pace, so that was a pleasant surprise.”
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