The Pursuit for a Black Female Champion in the Comrades Marathon

It is Comrades Marathon week and excitement abounds within South African road running circles as runners prepare for the annual pilgrimage to KwaZulu-Natal for that famous 90km run.

Two years ago, I wrote an article wondering just why it is that a black woman has yet to win the race. Numerous reasons were put forth by some experts – among them champions-producing coach John Hamlett as well as the official Comrades coach Lindsey Parry plus one-time gold medalist Fikile Mbuthuma and the mother of South African road running Blanche Moila.

While Mbuthuma argued that they are much stronger and thus more enduring, she lamented the fact that black women do not enjoy the same kind of support their white adversaries do and pointed at that as the reason for there not being any winner.

Moila reasoned that black women are disadvantaged in that they live in ‘unsafe environments’ which makes it harder for them to train properly for the Ultimate Human Race. And not many of them can afford to take up running on a full-time basis like the white women.

The two coaches agreed that lack of support – financially and otherwise – is a factor. They did, however, point out that the black female athletes also need to change their mentality a bit and understand that, unlike the standard marathons where many of them have done well, the Comrades Marathon is a different beast that requires much more hard work and commitment to master.

In the two races since I published that article, only two black females have finished in the top ten – to bring to five the number of black women who have earned gold medals at the race since 1975 when women and blacks were allowed to participate in the race that started back in 1921.

Galaletsang Mekgoe of Nedbank Running Club was fifth in 2022 and last year, Jenet Mbhele who runs for Hollywood Athletics Club completed the gold medal positions with her tenth place. Before them and Mbuthuma, Nokhuthula Hlengwa (ninth in 1993) and Sarah Mahlangu (seventh in 2002) had attained gold.

There is, however, a good chance that for the first time in the history of the race, there could be more than one black woman in the top ten.

This week, I will profile those runners. First, though I will start with an article on Mbuthuma – a Comrades Marathon stalwart who has inspired the young lasses who will be lining up at the Durban City Hall on Sunday morning dreaming of getting close if not achieving the great honour of being the first black woman to win The Ultimate Human Race.