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Wostmann out to make history

Cape Town - On Sunday Caroline Wostmann will try to achieve something that has never been done. She will attempt to win both the Two Oceans and the Comrades ultra-races in two consecutive years.

With her victory in last year’s Comrades, Wostmann, who trains at the High Performance Centre (HPC), became only the fourth athlete ever to win the Two Oceans and the Comrades in the same year.

Derek Preiss (1974 and 1975), Frith van der Merwe (1989) and Elena Nurgalieva from Russia (2004 and 2012), are the only other athletes who were able to accomplish this feat.

Lindsey Parry (head coach at Tuks/HPC) emphasised that making running history will not be what the Comrades is about for Wostmann on Sunday.

“Caroline’s only focus will be to stick to the race plan we agreed on. I think we have planned a good race. I know you can never expect to win a race but we are expecting to be competitive. The good thing is that, as far as I am concerned, there is no pressure on Caroline. The fact that she has won the Two Oceans means that she has already achieved a great result for the year.”

What does it take to win Comrades?

“It is no secret. The fastest time on the day will win the race and we are aiming to run the fastest time. It is not impossible for Caroline to go under six hours but that is not our target.”

Parry expects that the women’s race might boil down to a battle between Wostmann, Charné Bosman (@Nedbank Dream Team) and Britain’s Ellie Greenwood (@Nedbank Dream Team). Last year Bosman, who also trains at the HPC, was second and Greenwood finished second in 2014.

“Quite a few other talented runners will also be competing. For example Sweden’s Kajsa Berg (@Nedbank Green Team) who finished second last September in the World 100km Championships in Winschoten, the Netherlands, but it is important to keep in mind that nobody just ‘rocks up’ at Comrades and wins. You first have to pay your dues.”

According to Parry, the unknown factors in the race will be Tanith Maxwell, a former Olympian marathon athlete, and Colleen de Reuck, the SA Olympian who now lives in the USA. Although De Reuck is 52 already, Parry is confident that she will finish in the top 10.

Parry prefers not to make predictions about what might happen if Wostmann and Bosman should be the two athletes to duel it out over the final kilometres.

“I coach both of them so I try not to play them off against each other. If Charné remembers to stick to her game plan it could be a very interesting race.”

Asked if he made major changes to the training programmes of Wostmann and Bosman since last year when they prepared for the ‘up-run’ (Durban to Pietermaritzburg), Parry said: “The fundamentals of running Comrades remain the same. In both the up and down runs the first 27km are the hardest part of the course.”

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