Posted: June 17, 2007

Athletics (RRW): Stunning Victory For Shvetsov At Comrades Marathon

From David Monti © 2007 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com By Riel Hauman NOTE: A more complete story will be available in tomorrow's Race Results Weekly --Ed. Size doesn’t matter, at least not in the Comrades. Tall, strongly-muscled, long-striding Russian Leonid Shvetsov, 38, finally disproved the belief that big men can’t win the “down” Comrades when he shattered Bruce Fordyce’s venerable 21-year-old record in the ultramarathon between Pietermaritzburg and Durban by more than three minutes in what second placer Grigoriy Murzin described as the greatest ultradistance performance of all time over 89.3 km (55.5 mi.). Shvetsov, who placed 13th in the 2004 Olympic Marathon and is 1.85m (6' 4") tall and weighs around 72 kg (158 lbs), finished in 5:20:49 to win by nine minutes, 31 seconds –-the biggest winning margin since Fordyce beat Mark Page by 10:46 in 1988. Shvetsov, who took the lead for good with more than 33 km to run, said afterwards that he felt the record could go soon after he ran through halfway of the 89.3 km distance. At halfway in Drummond he was still almost two minutes behind leader Petros Sosibo, who would eventually fade to 48th place. "The most important thing in a race like this is to focus on the distance and preserve power in your legs," said Shvetsov. "Never give everything you have until the very end." South African men failed to win the down run for the first time since 1999. The first South African in Durban’s Kingsmead Stadium was Mncedisi Mkhize in third place. He ran 5:32:58 to finish 2:38 behind Murzin’s 5:30:20. In the women’s race one of the Nurgalieva twins took the title –-but not Yelena, who was going for a historic fourth win and set a course record of 6:09:24 in last year’s “up” run. It was Olesya who crossed the line first, in a personal best 6:10:11. Six foreign women finished in the top ten, with Farwa Mentoor (fourth) the first South African for an astounding sixth time in a row. Interestingly enough, in the 2005 down run Olesya had also finished ahead of her sibling, when Tatyana Zhirkova beat them both. Top Results: MEN - 1. Leonid Shvetsov (RUS) 5:20:49 CR* R200,000 2. Grigory Murzin (RUS) 5:30:20 100,000 3. Mncedisi Mkhize 5:32:58 75,000 4. Fusi Nhlapo 5:33:56 40,000 5. Leboka Noto (LES) 5:35:35 30,000 *Course record; previous Bruce Fordyce, 5:24:07, 1986 WOMEN - 1. Olesya Nurgalieva (RUS) 6:10:11 R200,000 2. Yelena Nurgalieva (RUS) 6:10:40 100,000 3. Madina Biktigirova (40+/RUS) 6:22:03 75,000 4. Farwa Mentoor 6:24:38 40,000 5. Marina Myshlyanova (40+/RUS) 6:25:26 30,000 Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest