Louisa Leballo's victory in the Spar Women's 10km Challenge caught her off guard yesterday, as she had been plagued by injury for the past four years and was not feeling well leading up to the race.

The 39-year-old from Soweto finished in a time of 32:58, ahead of Kesa Molotsane (32:59) and Irvette van Zyl (33:07) in the first race of the six-legged series.

Leballo was the best performing South African at the World Cross Country Championship in Kampala, Uganda, last month, with a 31st place finish.

However, she started feeling sick when returned home last week. It did not show at all yesterday, though, as she started breathing heavily on the neck of the leader Van Zyl just ahead of the four-kilometre mark, before breaking away in the final 500 metres to win.

"I battled with injury for the past four years, so it was a surprise to win the race. I was in Uganda with the World Cross Country Champs [SA] team, so when we came back I had a runny tummy and my body dropped, only to find out it was dehydration. I did recover, but not fully," said Leballo.

She's hoping to stay injury free to compete in the remaining Spar Grand Prix races in Port Elizabeth, Durban, Pretoria, Pietermaritzburg and Johannesburg.

Leballo overcame patellar tendinitis (a knee-cap tendon injury) and was ordered by doctors to either take a rest or go for an operation.

She avoided surgery and took five to six months of rest last year.