The streets of Johannesburg and Durban resembled a ‘sea of pink’ on Wednesday 09 August 2023 with runners and walkers coming out in their masses to participate in the iconic Totalsports Women’s Race, South Africa’s largest Women’s Day celebration. Irvette Van Zyl was the athlete to beat in Johannesburg, while Cacisile Sosibo showed the ladies a clean pair of heels in Durban.
Running in the colours of Hollywood Athletics Club, Irvette Van Zyl (Pretoria East) claimed her 6th Totalsports Women’s Race Johannesburg victory on the day (having won in 2017 and 2007 – 2010), in a deserving time of 34 minutes 58 seconds. Rutendo Nyahora came in second, with Lebo Phalula finishing third.
“I loved this race last year, so I had to come back and just try to be the best that I could be,” says Van Zyl. “Coming into the race I wanted to be tactical, take it easy on the downhills, so that I could be ok on the uphills. We stayed together until about the 5km mark, and then the break happened. I knew that the second half of the route was quite difficult and that if I could just maintain until then I could push through until the end. I am chuffed with today’s race. I had a rough start to the year due to injury, so being here today, being healthy and fit and able to enjoy running again is awesome. I’m happy to come away with the win. I really enjoyed the event. The atmosphere was great as always. It’s awesome to be here on Women’s Day, celebrating women together.”
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