Ex-champ tips Steyn to win Comrades again

Former Comrades Marathon champion Charné Bosman has tipped Carla Molinaro and Adele Broodryk as athletes to challenge Gerda Steyn on Sunday in the up-run race from Durban to Pietermaritzburg.

Molinaro was on the podium last year for finishing third in the women's race, behind winner Steyn and Broodryk.

Molinaro, who also came third at the Two Oceans Marathon in April, and the two will be among the favourites on Sunday.

“Gerda is a friend of mine and my money will be on her. She will run Comrades and she will go to the Olympic Games,” Bosman explains.

“I'm looking forward to seeing her going from Comrades to the Olympic Games; she is the favourite to win Comrades again this year.

“She is focusing on her own things and knows what to do. Anything can happen on race day. You can get sick and if something like that happens, any athlete can come through.

“I think she will do her homework and I don't know who else will challenge her. But there is Molinaro, who came third, and Adele... and I think they are both hungry.”

Bosman, who won the race in 2016, said she will not take part on Sunday after she failed to finish in the last two years and wants to come back stronger next year when she turns 50.

“Sometimes you need to sit back to go a little bit higher in life. So, in 2022 I had a big disappointment. I was in such great shape and ended up in hospital having Covid-19 and I didn't finish that race,” she said.

“I wanted to come back in 2023 to show that in 2022 I would have finished in the top three. And then last year, I think I tried too hard and I actually tore my hamstring muscle at the beginning of the year.

“But I didn't want to listen to it because I wanted to get into Comrades and that was the biggest mistake to start the marathon with the big injury and I could not finish the race last year.

“I decided next year I will turn 50. Why not just take a break and be stronger?”