Two Oceans Marathon: Nkhabutlane, Lebopo in Top 5, Nkhasi wins half-marathon

Lesotho’s Motlokoa Nkhabutlane and Mabuthile Lebopo cracked the top five of this year’s Two Oceans Marathon but narrowly missed out on victory finishing three minutes behind the winner, Mike Fokoroni of Zimbabwe.

The overcast and rainy conditions at the start of the day made it a slow race and, in the end, Fokoroni’s winning time of 3 hours, 13 minutes and 36 seconds (3:13:36) was the slowest winning time in 22 years.

Winner last year, third this year...
Motlokoa Nkhabutlane

Fokoroni was followed by countryman Collen Makaza in 3:14:48.

Nkhabutlane, who won last year’s race, finished third in a time of 3:16:54 while Lebopo, a winner in 2010, finished fourth in 3:16:31.

In the women’s Ultra, South Africa’s Caroline Wöstmann defended her crown beating countrywomen Tanith Maxwell who had led for much of the race. Amelework Fikadu Bosho of Ethiopia finished third.

There was victory for Lesotho in the 21km half marathon race. Namakoe Nkhasi claimed race honours with a time of 1:03:38.

Two Oceans Ultra Race Results:

Men

1. Mike Fokoroni (Zimbabwe) - 3:13:36

2. Collen Makaza (Zimbabwe) - 3:14:48

3. Motlokoa Nkhabutlane (Lesotho) - 3:16:54

4. Mabuthile Lebopo (Lesotho) - 3:16:31

5. Porthiper Dombojena (Zimbabwe) - 3:17:43

Women

1. Caroline Wöstmann (South Africa) - 3:44:44

2. Tanith Maxwell (South Africa) - 3:45:55

3. Amelework Bosho (Ethiopia) - 3:47:40

21km Results

Men

1. Namakoe Nkhasi (Lesotho) - 1:03:38

2. Elroy Gelant (South Africa) - 1:03:40

3. David Manja (South Africa) - 1:03:45

Women

1. Irvette van Zyl (South Africa) - 1:13:14

2. Onneile Dintwe (Botswana) - 1:17:15

3. Alina Armas (Namibia) - 1:18:05