Ntsindiso Mphakathi sets sights on Comrades after City-to-City triumph

Representing the Entsika Running Club, Mphakathi claimed victory in the race from Tshwane to Johannesburg in an impressive 2 hours, 52 minutes, and 28 seconds – just six months after his success in last year’s Soweto Marathon.

This year’s 87km Ultimate Human Race from Durban to Pietermaritzburg is scheduled for Sunday 9 June, and the 34-year-old is squarely focused on making his mark again.

"I'm speechless. I'm very happy because, in my preparations, I can say this race just hijacked me – I was still trying to adopt the training after telling myself that I want to try the Comrades, since the course has been changed," Mphakathi explained to journalists on Sunday.

"So I just told myself, let me just try because I cancelled a few races I used to attend in the last three month, but I said, okay, let me try to focus on Comrades and see what's going to happen.

"Last year I ran six hours and three minutes, so that just motivated me to try something different in the upcoming Comrades, and I just focused on training and I was taking it easy and only pushed harder in speed."

Mphakathi further explained how Sunday’s City-to-City "hijacked" him, his coach Hendrick Ramaala quickly assisted so he could participate as part of his preparation for the Comrades, with victory having come as a pleasant surprise.

"It's just the grace of God because truly speaking, I was not expecting that much – even my training was not at 100 percent, but I was just trying to hang on [to the lead]," he explained.

"The guys I have been training with, some were preparing for the African Champs and others were preparing for the Two Oceans, while I was just training and was going to see around late-April if there was anything I can catch around me.

"But I just told myself, any race I'm going to, I'll just take as a time-trial so that I can see how far I am, so that I can try Comrades."

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