Hollywood Athletics Club Sub-elite athlete Lethokuhle Letsoalo put out a strong performance on her way to setting a new 1:27:01 Personal Best time over the Half-Marathon on Sunday.
In the build-up to the race, Letsoalo revealed that she wanted to improve her times in the shorter distances. The 41-year-old athlete who hails from Ladysmith didn’t disappoint as she accomplished the mission to finish in sixth place overall.
Letsoalo, whose previous PB over the distance was 1 hour 28 minutes, says everything went according to plan on the day and contributed to her putting in an excellent performance.
“This is the huge achievement for me. I enjoyed the race from the start to the finish. I must say, this is a very challenging course, and you must be able to approach it cautiously,” said the elated Letsoalo, who finished as the third lady over the Marathon distance last year.
“Since I have run the race in the past, I knew exactly what lay ahead. The most important thing was to stick to the game plan. The first half of the race is fast since it’s mostly downhill, but I managed to approach it nicely. Then in the last five kilometres, I was able speed up a bit and increase the pace. Overall, I’m very happy with the way I managed to stick to what I had planned before the race. To run a PB is motivating since this year, I plan to get faster in the shorter distances, “
Letsoalo, who has a personal best time of 03:04:28 over 42km clocked during Durban International Marathon last year to finish 14th overall, will now turn her focus to breaking the sub-three-hour barrier in the Marathon before the end of the year. She remains undecided on which Marathons she will tackle and will discuss this with her coach, Mark Wolff.
🌟 When the going gets tough, the Purple Team get faster! 💜
— Hollywood Athletics Club (@HWAthleticsClub) March 17, 2025
Here’s how they raced their way into greatness this weekend. 🏃♀️💨
Race for Gender Equality
- Neheng Khatala placed 3rd in the 21.1km (1:15:40)
- Rutendo Nyahora placed 5th in the 21.1km (1:21:49)
- Nimrod Mokoena… pic.twitter.com/akuJcBaPXU
Staying with Sunday’s Balwin Dolphin Coast race, another Hollywood athlete enjoyed a new personal best time as Menzi Ndaba clocked a massive PB of 1:11:45 in the men’s Half Marathon to finish fifth overall. In the process the 34-year-old took almost six minutes off his previous best time of 1 hour 17 minutes.
In the 10km race, Simphiwe Zulu produced another stellar performance, crossing the line in 33:34 to finish fifth overall. Simphiwe once again found himself on top the podium in the 40-49 age category.
Up the N3 in Gauteng in the Motsepe Race to Gender Equality, Neheng Khatala continued her excellent form this year. She clocked a 01:15:40 to take third sport overall and pocketed R25 000 for her efforts. To put this performance into perspective, Neheng is deep in Two Oceans preparation. This was the third time Khatala managed to finish on the podium this year after winning both the Balwin Pretoria Marathon in February and the Biogen Half Marathon in January. Meanwhile, Rutendo Nyahora also put in a fine performance in the same race to finish fifth in a time of 1:21:49.
Elsewhere, Carla Molinaro won the the Weskus Marathon in a time of 2:46:32 while Melinda Jansen van Vuuren finished third in the Trojan Om Die Dam 50km race in an impressive time of 3:50:24.
