With the 56km main event taking place on Saturday which included LIVE television broadcast on SuperSport, Nedbank running club green dream team member Onalenna Khonkhobe ran the race of his life to chase down teammate Lloyd Bosman over the final 5km to take an emphatic victory in 3:09:30, with Bosman finishing 2nd only 28 seconds back, giving the Nedbank running team a 1-2 podium finish. Nedbank running club athletes Degefa Lafebo and Lyno Muchena also finished in the top 10, with 7th and 10th respectively.

At the pre-race elite press conference, the day before the race, a confident Khonkhobe had his fellow athletes watching on as the 27-year-old athlete who is coached by Nedbank running club development coach Pio Mpolokeng announced himself. “Today I introduce myself to you and tomorrow, you will acknowledge me,” said Kohonkhobe. And acknowledge the man we certainly did, as a powerful last 6km where he averaged 2:55 per km sealed the deal to victory.

“We trained hard for this one and the results is the effort that we put into it.” Having run his first Two Oceans Marathon back in 2022 where he finished 6th, Khonkhobe rated the Two Oceans Marathon as a race remarkably close to his heart. “I call this race my ancestor’s race because nobody knew me before 2022 and when I finished 6th, many people saw me on tv and I became known,” said Khonkhobe. “It was a must that I came back to it and win it.”

In the women’s race, the Nedbank running club had 3 athletes in the top 10 obtaining gold medal finishes, of whom all 3 used the event as prep towards the Comrades Marathon on 9 June. Andrea Pomaranski finished 6th in 3:44:28 with teammates Caitriona Jennings and Adele Broodryk in 7th and 8th respectively. Pomaranski makes her debut at Comrades whilst Broodryk has been 3rd and 2nd in her last two Comrades and Jennings taking a podium spot in 3rd, the last time the Comrades Marathon went up to Pietermaritzburg. Jeannie Henderson finished 11th and Helene Van Rooyen in 15th.

A remarkable performance by Maretha Smit who 17th and was 1st Western Province athlete and in the men’s division Ricardo Swarts was the first Western Province athlete in 20th position.

Nedbank running club athletes also excelled in the age category prizes. In the men’s 50-59 category, Leslie Pangemanan finished 3rd. In the women’s 40-49 category, Poramanski and Jennings took the first two spots on the podium. Annatjie Botes took silver in the 60-69 age group, running a quick 4:58:51.

The following day in the half marathon, the green dream team were out in action again. After leading much of the first half of the race, George Kusche running his debut half marathon relinquished the lead to Nedbank running club teammate Thabang Mosiako who cruised to victory in a time of 1:04:40. Kusche got pipped on the line, finishing 3rd in 1:05:33. Teammate Wellington Varevi from Nedbank running club Zimbabwe was 5th.

Rainart Behrens took the junior men’s title in 1:20:14 with teammates Friedl van der Merwe and Johannes Grobbelaar taking gold and silver in the 60-69 age group. Margie Saunders set yet another world class time in the 70-79 age group, winning by over 20 minutes with a time of 1:47:00. Christiana Adrianse won the 40-age category prize in the 21km race.