The Phalula twins had much to celebrate after the Johannesburg leg of the SPAR Women\u2019s 10km Challenge at the Wanderers Club in Illovo on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Lebogang Phalula romped home in first place and her sister, Diana-Lebo, clinched the Grand Prix, after finishing in fifth position.<\/p>\n
The twins went into the lead right from the start of the race, which was run on a cool overcast morning. For the first two kilometres, they ran in a bunch which included Rutendo Nyahora and Lesotho runner Mamorallo Tjoka.<\/p>\n
Lebogang then moved ahead, and was never seriously challenged after that. \u201cI knew that I had to get well ahead, because Rutendo finishes strongly, \u201c she said.<\/p>\n
Lebogang Phalula finished the race in 33.34 minutes, seven seconds ahead of Nyahora, who was closing in on her in the last kilometre.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just hung in there,\u201d said Phalula, smiling. \u201cThe weather was good for me today. I really struggle when it\u2019s hot, so it was good that it was cool and overcast.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said her victory was very important to her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tested positive for drugs in a Challenge race in Pretoria and was banned for six months,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was hard to come back into running after that, especially as the banned substance was given to me by my coach. Now I\u2019m running clean and I want to prove to everyone that I am not a drug cheat. I am so happy to be running well again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nyahora said she had decided to push hard from the six kilometre mark, although her legs were very tired.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy aim was to win, but I couldn\u2019t catch her. But next year . . .\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Third home was Tjoka, in 34.43 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been running these races for a long time, without really getting anywhere. But I\u2019m preparing for the Soweto marathon, and I decided to test my speed today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very pleased with the way I ran today and will push myself harder the next time I run the SPAR race.\u201d ……….<\/p>\n
Images and more here: Phalula sisters triumph at Johannesburg Spar Women’s 10km Race.<\/p>\n
MyJHB<\/a><\/p>\n Read more on MyJHB<\/a>.<\/p>\n Join the fun:<\/strong> Add Your event<\/a> | Submit a Press Release<\/a> | Add your listing<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Phalula twins had much to celebrate after the Johannesburg leg of the SPAR Women\u2019s 10km Challenge at the Wanderers Club in Illovo on Sunday. Lebogang Phalula romped home in first place and her sister, Diana-Lebo, clinched the Grand Prix, after finishing in fifth position. The twins went into the lead right from the start […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3332],"tags":[6409,6410,6355],"class_list":{"0":"post-42461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-johannesburg-south-africa","7":"tag-phalula","8":"tag-sisters","9":"tag-triumphant","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}