Glenrose Xaba is gearing up for the defence of her 2024 Spar Grand Prix title, with the Spar Women’s 10km Challenge kicking off the series in Cape Town on March 28.
Image: Delarey Ferreira
Last year’s Spar Grand Prix winner Glenrose Xaba is relieved that the step up to marathons has not robbed her of her speed at the shorter distances.
Xaba is seeking to become only the fourth person after Rene Kalmer, Irvette van Zyl and Ethiopian Tadu Nare to win the prestigious road running title three times this year.
“So far the speed that I’m getting is very good because the impact of marathons did not take much out of my body. I don’t think marathons had an impact on my body because my body’s still responding in the same way,” Xaba told Independent Media Sport.
She said her training at her base at the University of Pretoria – a combination of track and road work – was going well so far. “Everything is on point.”
There was further proof that Xaba has not lost any of her trademark speed at her last road race, the Boxer Super Run 5K in November in Tshwane.
“I did very well because I won the 5K in 15:42, so it shows that I still have a lot of speed in my legs,” Xaba said.
The track and road running star first won the Spar Grand Prix title in 2018, when it was limited to domestic runners.
Last year, she became the first South African to win the award since it was opened to international runners in 2019. She is looking forward to adding further milestones at this year’s series.
“It will mean a lot a lot to me because I will be joining that same group of Yvette and Rene where they won three grands prix, so it will encourage me to do well and keep going to achieve those goals that I want to achieve,” she said.
Asked who her main rivals for the title were, Xaba refused to single out anyone.
“Everyone is my competition. As long as I run with you, you are the competition to me. I am looking forward to have good competition in the series because everyone is training (hard) for the series, everyone wants to achieve their goal for the series,” she said.
“I will see as time goes on because we haven’t run a race yet, so if I can get the first result for Spar Cape Town, I will know who will be my competition for the next race.”
Women from the Mother City and surrounds will take part in the Spar Women’s 10km Challenge and 5km Fun Run on Sunday, March 30, running or walking South Africa’s ‘Most Beautiful’ race along the Atlantic Seaboard.
The 10km race and 5km fun run start and finish in Greenpoint.
It is the first of the five 10km women-only races making up the series featuring Africa’s elite runners.
The other races are in Durban on June 22, Tshwane on August 2, Gqeberha on September 27, and Johannesburg on October 5.The athletes’ top-four performances count towards the Spar Grand Prix.
The Cape Town leg of the Spar Women’s Challenge series is sold out.
“My favourite races are Tshwane and Durban because it’s where I’m running very well. Cape Town sometimes I’m not running very well because of the wind,” Xaba said.
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