Glenrose ‘Supercharge’ Xaba clinched a memorable victory at the opening race in the 2025 SPAR Women’s Challenge 10km Series in Cape Town this morning (Sunday 30 March), underlining her status as the country’s leading marathon and sub-marathon athlete.
Xaba successfully defended her title in what proved a ‘cut and paste’ copy of last year’s finish, when she broke clear of Ethiopian Selam Gebre in the final kilometre to win by just five seconds in 33 min 13 sec.
Twelve months ago, it was Gebre’s compatriot, junior athlete Diniya Abaraya, who suffered the same fate after trying to ‘stick and kick’ against Xaba.
Xaba was delighted to welcome her training partner, Karabo Mailula, across the line in third in 33:33, a significant improvement on her 6th in 34:43 in last year’s race.
Sixteen thousand runners and walkers took part in the race, celebrating physical and mental health in the longest-running road race series on the continent.
The race proved a triumph for Violet and Caster Semenya’s coaching group, with four of their athletes in the top ten, including Xaba and Mailula, Karabo More (6th) and Karabo Motsoeneng (10th). And a race highlight was the appearance of the former world track champion herself on the start line, with Semenya racing to 14th position in 36:28.
While the event proved a substantial success, the thirty-minute delay at the start awaiting the traffic police sign-off on the safety of the route was unfortunate and undoubtedly impacted on performances of the elite athletes.
The official statement on the delay read “The race safety committee have taken the decision to hold the start until such time as all possible safety issues have been solved on the race route”.
Xaba’s time was almost a minute outside her winning effort last year, likely the result both of race tactics and snaffles with the route.
“I was happy with my race and it’s always great to be a part of this series, which does so much for athletes in South Africa,” Xaba said.
“I was a bit disappointed with my time though,” Xaba said. “We stood too long and my stiff muscles didn’t respond very well. Also, my watch suggested the course may have been long. And with no one else prepared to take the pace up front it was hard to push the whole way on my own.”
Xaba led from the start and it was clear Gebre’s strategy was to stay at her shoulder and try to outkick Xaba at the finish.
Gebre, who had raced to a 2 hr 28 min marathon in Rome just two weeks ago, was half a stride behind Xaba, as the athletes ran onto Helen Suzman Boulevard a quarter way through the race, with Gebre’s compatriot, Meseret Fita, completing the lead trio.
Mailula was five metres back, just ahead of a trio of Boxer Athletics Club athletes, More, Cacisile Sosibo and evergreen veteran Lebo Phalula, with Karabo Motsoeneng and Lesotho’s Nthabiseng Letokoto in 8th and 9th.
Estonia-born, Russian-educated, Australian-registered and South African-domiciled veteran athlete, Olga Firsova, was lying 10th and moving up through the field.
Approaching halfway, 41-year-old Phalula put in a strong surge to drag some of the chase group with her as they closed the gap on the leaders.
Fita dropped back as Sobiso and Mailula joined the two leaders and at 7km the quartet were in close formation, heading for home down Beach Road. Phalula’s form recalled her glory days twenty years ago as she kept within striking distance.
Sosibo and Mailula were unable to hold the pace, falling back and leaving Xaba and Gebre out alone to contest the final two kilometres, with the South African proving the stronger and racing to victory.
Xaba can look forward to another year at the peak of her form and will start favourite to win the national 10 000m championships at the Cape Miler meeting at Green Point on Friday. She has yet to decide on whether to aim for the marathon or track at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September or the 5km or half marathon at the World Road Championships.
SPAR Women’s Challenge 10km Results
