Oldies run marathon (21-06-07)

etween Pietermaritzburg and Durban.
However, the marathon record belongs to the 78-year-old former chairman of the Comrades Marathon organizing committee, Toppy Fanner, who will run in this year’s race. He last ran the race in 1971 and, if he finishes, will be the oldest to do so after Wally Hayward, five-time winner who ran in 1989 at the age of 80.
Zimbabwean McGee will make a history of some sorts as Bulawayo Jethro Thebe at 52 was the oldest person from Zimbabwe to have run the ultra race.
Joseph Mungwari, the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe president, said there had been increase in the number of local athletes who have been seeking clearances to compete in ‘commercial races’, particularly in South Africa.
The male and female winners will receive R100,000 (approx. US$15,000), as well as a special solid gold medal donated by the Harmony Gold Mining Company (these medals go to the first 10 men and women).
Harmony is also offering a 100-ounce gold bar each (worth approximately R200,000) to the first male and female finishers who break the course records: Grishin’s 5:26:25 and American Ann Trason’s 6:13:23 of 1996 (when the race distance was 87.3 km and 86.7 km respectively).
Zimbabwean runners are (age in brackets): Jethro Thebe (52), Iain Clark (56), Colen Colegrave (37), Joe Davies (49), Adele Economou (34), John Economou (38), Michelle Hogg (39), Albert McGee (71), Stephen Mazingi (32), Stephen Sananza (37), Edward Siziba (40). – CAJ News