Tadu Nare cruises to victory despite chilly conditions

It was another dominant performance from Ethiopian Tadu Nare as she won the fourth leg of the Spar 10km women's Grand Prix in Mbombela on a chilly Saturday morning.

Nare, who won the Gqeberha and Durban races, clocked 32:23 seconds ahead of second place Selam Gebre, who finished in 32:51 seconds.

Newcomer Docus Ajok completed the podium top three finish as she finished in 33:25 seconds.

Nare had a clear game plan of breaking away from the pack of six with 3km left as she cruised to victory and had one hand in the Grand Prix series.

The Ethiopian was not happy with her time as she wanted to improve that and cited the chilly conditions for the slow pace.

"It was tough for me. First of all, it was too cold. I tried too hard to get warm even at the beginning, but it was so cold that my body could not get warm," Nare told the media during the press conference.

"Even after the race, I had to just keep going and it was only towards the end that I felt warm, but even then, it was very cold. But all in all, I'm glad that it turned out to be a positive race and I came first and I'm happy about that.

"When it comes to the time, I'm not happy with it, but considering the weather and ups and downs with the hills and the challenges, I'm not going to be so hard on myself. But I wanted to improve my time which I didn't and I'm not very happy about that."

Nare will win the Grand Prix for the third successive time if she wins either the Pretoria leg on August 5 or the Johannesburg leg in October.

Glenrose Xaba became the first South African home as she finished fifth in 33:40 seconds and blamed fatigue after she ran the Absa Run Your City Durban leg last week.

"I need to get back to the drawing board so I can get my strength back. When we were at the 8km, I got to Docus, but my legs started to cramp and I didn't have the strength to fight back," Xaba said.

"But I'm very happy with the position and the times because the race was tough."