LEBOPO AND NURGALIEVA ARE TWO OCEANS CHAMPIONS

By David Monti with Riël Hauman
(c) 2010 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved

NOTE: Look for detailed results and a much more robust story from Riël Hauman in Tuesday's RRW --Ed.

Mabuthile Lebopo of Lesotho and Olesya Nurgalieva of Russia won today's 41st running of the Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon, South Africa's second most important ultramarathon after the Comrades.

Lebopo became the first man from Lesotho to win the 56 km race since Gabashane Rakabaele in 1976.  He crossed the finish line in 3:06:18, the fastest winning time since 2005.  Lebopo beat compatriots Moeketsi Mosuhli and Teboho Sello, giving Lesotho --a tiny African nation of 2.1 million people entirely surrounded by South Africa-- a podium sweep.

For the third year in a row, and the fifth time in seven years, a woman named Nurgalieva won the women's race.  This time it was Olesya who won for the second time, beating her twin sister Elena, 3:41:53 to 3:42:19.  South Africa's Adinda Kruger finished a distant third in 3:49:23.

Both the men's (3:03:44) and women's (3:30:36) course records never came under threat.

 

 

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