The Free State record holder for the women’s marathon, Paulina Njeya, added another victory to her resume at the Castle Lite trail run series. She had no trouble to retain her unbeaten record in the series when she beat all the participants comfortably on Friday at the fourth event of six in the series.
Njeya won the 10km race for women with no serious threat from behind. Monica Theron had to settle for a distant second place.
Chabeli Nyedimane had it all his own way in the 10km for men, as well. He set brisk pace, challenging his closest rivals from the onset. Nyedimane, however, found the challenges thrown at him easy to counter over a tough course at the Bloemfontein Botanical Gardens where the meeting was staged.
Wilfred Leeu came in for silver, way behind Nyedimane.
Sampi Morapedi, who raced in the veterans division (40 to 49 years), was also unbeaten in his age group from day one of the series. He was easily crowned the winner on Friday and from the way he is running currently, it seems that he will remain unbeaten in the series, with only two events coming up.
Leana Esterhuizen (veterans, 40 to 49 years) and Trudie Oosthuizen (masters, 50 to 59 years) also scored respective victories in their mentioned categories.
Close to 400 participants tackled the Botanical Gardens event and several athletes were of the opinion that the meeting was one of the most successful (if not the best ever) trail run meetings held in Bloemfontein. – RUFUS BOTHA
