{"id":21722,"date":"2024-06-10T18:37:38","date_gmt":"2024-06-10T16:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/?p=21722"},"modified":"2024-06-10T18:37:38","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T16:37:38","slug":"gerda-steyn-the-queen-of-sas-roads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/2024\/06\/10\/gerda-steyn-the-queen-of-sas-roads\/","title":{"rendered":"Gerda Steyn, the queen of SA’s roads"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gerda Steyn is making a habit of breaking records.<\/p>\n

South Africa’s premier ultra marathon runner broke her own Comrades Marathon Up Run record on Sunday, coming in at 5:49:46, smashing her 2019 time of 5:58:53 by nearly 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am speechless once again today. It is the best day of my life,\u201d said an overwhelemed and exhausted Steyn after crossing the finish line in Pietermaritzburg. For South Africa, I was carrying the thought of everyone watching the race today from the start to finish. It carried me, so thank you everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steyn was in a league of her own as she led for over 85kms of the women’s race from Durban to the Scottsville Stadium in Pietermaritzburg.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do feel like my plan worked really well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m quite particular when it comes to planning. I know where I want to be at certain spots.”<\/p>\n

\"\"
Gerda Steyn(r) at the start line during the 2024 Comrades Marathon, Durban to Pietermaritzburg on 9 June 2024 \u00a9Phakamisa Lensman\/BackpagePix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere was never really a time in the race where I wasn\u2019t on plan, except for 2km to go [to the finish]. I looked at the clock and saw that I will have to sprint to make it under 5:50 and I only just made it so it\u2019s just an extra bonus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s victory was Steyn\u2019s third overall at the Comrades \u2013 following triumphs in 2019 and 2023 respectively \u2013 and second in succession, making her the fifth woman to win it three times.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been quite the year for Steyn, having broken the records at Om Die Dam, The Two Oceans Marathon and now the Comrades.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a challenge that I\u2019ve set myself,\u201d the Phantane Athletics Club runner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know nobody has ever attempted running Comrades and the Olympics in the same year, but I feel really blessed that I\u2019ve got this opportunity. To stand here today, it feels like I have the platform to encourage people to go after difficult things because it\u2019s worth it and it builds your character, and it inspires so many people.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy about my choice and I\u2019m going to work so hard to be ready on 11 August to represent South Africa in the proudest way that I possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s Alexandra Morozova, who won the 2022 Comrades Marathon, was second in 6:05:12 while America\u2019s Courtney Olsen, running in her first Comrades, closed out the podium in 6:08:09.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gerda Steyn is making a habit of breaking records. South Africa’s premier ultra marathon runner broke her own Comrades Marathon Up Run record on Sunday, coming in at 5:49:46, smashing her 2019 time of 5:58:53 by nearly 10 minutes. \u201cI am speechless once again today. It is the best day ...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":21729,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/B24FIPL1777-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21722"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21748,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21722\/revisions\/21748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}