Lucas Nonyana of the Liberty Life Athletics Club left his opponents eating dust, when he won the Two Countries Marathon from Zimbabwe to South Africa on Saturday.

He won the race in a respectable 2:21:12, with Vusa Mnikwa of the Harmony Gold Athletics Club second in 2:22:54. Willie Sithole of the Rainbow Athletics Club clocked 2:26:06 and grabbed the third place.

The ladies’ 42,2 km race was similarly competitive with veteran runner Jane Mudau of Harmony winning in 3:05:07. Mudau battled it out to overcome Muchaneta Gwata of Harmony, who clocked 3:23:39, followed by Livhuwani Maduka, also from Harmony, who took third place in 3:32:40.

The halfmarathon race produced fireworks as last year’s overall champion, Bethuel Netshifhefhe (1:06:08) of Harmony Gold Athletics Club, was beaten by the speedy Mwanengeni Tsungai (1:06:26) of Liberty Life Athletics Club by 18 seconds. Rabson Chigara of Harmony Gold finished third in 1:07:32.

The ladies 21,1 km race concluded with four seconds separating Mbofholowo Sihadi of Harmony, who clocked 1:24:40 and last year’s ladies overall champion, Joyce Makwarela of Harmony Gold, who clocked 01:24:44. Ndofhiwa Mandiwana, also from Harmony, came third after clocking 1:26:56.

During the prize-giving ceremony, Mayor Mahasela said: “Congratulations to all the runners for participating in this 10th Two Countries Marathon. We are happy that runners from all over South Africa and Zimbabwe were able to participate in either the 42,2 km marathon or the 21,1km half-marathon. We are working hard to ensure that next year the race becomes bigger”.

Urging other sponsors to contribute towards the development of sports in Musina, Mahasela said: “We deeply appreciate what the Musina Local Municipality, Old Mutual, Limpopo Enterprise Development (Limdev) and Phalaphala FM have done to make this marathon one of the fastest growing athletics events in Limpopo Province. We also thank Coca Cola and Eric Louw High School for their unwavering support”.

Winners received prizes according to the categories that they entered for. The open category prizes for both men and ladies were equal, with each winner of the marathon getting R3 000 and the winner of the half-marathon getting R1 000.

Medals for the marathon were presented to all category winners, as well as the first 10 men and ladies. In the half-marathon, all category winners received gold medals as well as the first five men and ladies.