Foreigners Take First at Comrades Marathon

Stephen Muzhingi of Zimbabwe and Russian Olesya Nurgalieva took first place in the men’s and woman’s races respectively in this year’s Comrades Marathon. The ‘down’ race from Pietermaritzburg to Durban took place on Sunday 24 May 2009 ending at the Sahara Stadium Kingsmead in Durban.

Muzhingi completed the race in 5 hours 23 minutes giving Zimbabwe a first Comrades victory. Muzhingi took the lead from front runner Leonid Shvetsov (Russia) in the last 9 kilometers dashing Shvetsov’s hopes of a third consecutive win. South African completed men’s top 10 winners.

Olesya Nurgalieva crossed the finish line in 6 hours 12 minutes narrowly beating her sister Elana who came in close second. The twins have dominated the front runners of the women’s race in recent years taking turns to bring home the winner’s position. Russians dominated the women’s top 10 with South African runners also finishing strong.

Local fans and foreign tourists lined the streets for the traditional Comrades picnic to support the runners. This event has become an institution on the running calendar and with South Africa marathon holidays gaining increasing popularity.

Next year will break with tradition as organisers plan another ‘down’ run to coincide with World Cup. Up to 20,000 competitors are expected to compete resulting in the need to end the race at Sahara Stadium Kingsmead which has bigger capacity for runners and supporters on South Africa marathon holidays.

2 by 2 Holidays are specialists in South Africa marathon holidays.

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