By BOB NORRIS
Entries are still being received for the 2016 ELB Washie 100. An interesting trend is developing that has not been seen before.
At the time of writing 41 novices had entered and 27 previous runners had committed. Of the novices 13 are women, whereas most years there have been fewer than 10 women in the field.
One of the novices is Elaine Stypula from the USA who is one prolific ultra-distance runner.
Will she finish Washie? Most likely she will, but will she win it? Probably not given that her times are in the region of 23 hours for a 100-miler (160km). Terrain of course would dictate times.
What she will do for the Washie is bring a great deal of interest and afford the race much needed international exposure.
Of the novice women the stand-out entrant is Carien Visser of Tuks AC. She ran a 7:35 Comrades this year, and does have a 7:27 silver medal time set in 2013. She has run a 3:01 marathon and a 4:41 Two Oceans. Though a novice, we know that pedigree counts for a great deal in endurance races such as Washie.
Two past female winners who have as yet to enter this year are Martha Pretorius from Cape Town, a five-time winner and Megan Davey from Johannesburg.
The information from Gauteng is that Davey will be running and as such is a favourite, while Pretorius has a number of male clubmates already signed up so that is perhaps a telling sign
Other women with respectable Comrades times who are in the field are Lezel Wethmar from Randburg and Nickey Horenz from Varsity Old Boys, Cape Town.
It is assured therefore that Washie 2016 will have a record field of women, perhaps novices overall and a new men’s winner is all but assured. This is creating interest in the race not felt since Johan van der Merwe arrived for the first of his four Washies having pronounced on Facebook that he would win and break the longstanding record. He did both and the world of ultra-marathon running took note.
He will sadly not be running this year due to injury.
Women novices enter Washie Monster
Entries are still being received for the 2016 ELB Washie 100. An interesting trend is developing that has not been seen before.
At the time of writing 41 novices had entered and 27 previous runners had committed. Of the novices 13 are women, whereas most years there have been fewer than 10 women in the field.
One of the novices is Elaine Stypula from the USA who is one prolific ultra-distance runner.
Will she finish Washie? Most likely she will, but will she win it? Probably not given that her times are in the region of 23 hours for a 100-miler (160km). Terrain of course would dictate times.
What she will do for the Washie is bring a great deal of interest and afford the race much needed international exposure.
Of the novice women the stand-out entrant is Carien Visser of Tuks AC. She ran a 7:35 Comrades this year, and does have a 7:27 silver medal time set in 2013. She has run a 3:01 marathon and a 4:41 Two Oceans. Though a novice, we know that pedigree counts for a great deal in endurance races such as Washie.
Two past female winners who have as yet to enter this year are Martha Pretorius from Cape Town, a five-time winner and Megan Davey from Johannesburg.
The information from Gauteng is that Davey will be running and as such is a favourite, while Pretorius has a number of male clubmates already signed up so that is perhaps a telling sign
Other women with respectable Comrades times who are in the field are Lezel Wethmar from Randburg and Nickey Horenz from Varsity Old Boys, Cape Town.
It is assured therefore that Washie 2016 will have a record field of women, perhaps novices overall and a new men’s winner is all but assured. This is creating interest in the race not felt since Johan van der Merwe arrived for the first of his four Washies having pronounced on Facebook that he would win and break the longstanding record. He did both and the world of ultra-marathon running took note.
He will sadly not be running this year due to injury.
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