Glenrose Xaba continued her defence for her Spar Grand Prix series title with another victory in the Durban leg of the 10km Women's Challenge on Sunday morning.
Xaba won in 31:54 and claimed the R30,000 first prize ahead of Ethiopians Diniya Abaray 32:09 and third-placed Selam Gebre (32:25).
Xaba is aiming to become the third runner after Rene Kalmer and Irvette van Zyl to win three Grand Prix seasons. She is currently in the driving seat after winning the first race in Cape Town in March.
The South African marathon record holder took a lead from 4km, fending off the challenge from the two Ethiopians. A the end, she was overly pleased with her performance as she continued to dominate the series and vowed to continue working hard.
"About winning my second race [in the 2025 Grand Prix], it means I must continue working hard and not relax because one win doesn't mean you have arrived," Xaba told the media during the press conference.
"It means that you have to work harder because others are also training and want to be like you, so you need to put in more extra hard work.
"My next race could be the Absa Run Your Series, where I will need to try and qualify for the World Championships [Tokyo in September] and try to boost my rankings."
WATCH | Xaba grabs second Grand Prix race in Durban, plots world champs qualification
Image: Darren Stewart/Gallo Images
Glenrose Xaba continued her defence for her Spar Grand Prix series title with another victory in the Durban leg of the 10km Women's Challenge on Sunday morning.
Xaba won in 31:54 and claimed the R30,000 first prize ahead of Ethiopians Diniya Abaray 32:09 and third-placed Selam Gebre (32:25).
Xaba is aiming to become the third runner after Rene Kalmer and Irvette van Zyl to win three Grand Prix seasons. She is currently in the driving seat after winning the first race in Cape Town in March.
The South African marathon record holder took a lead from 4km, fending off the challenge from the two Ethiopians. A the end, she was overly pleased with her performance as she continued to dominate the series and vowed to continue working hard.
"About winning my second race [in the 2025 Grand Prix], it means I must continue working hard and not relax because one win doesn't mean you have arrived," Xaba told the media during the press conference.
"It means that you have to work harder because others are also training and want to be like you, so you need to put in more extra hard work.
"My next race could be the Absa Run Your Series, where I will need to try and qualify for the World Championships [Tokyo in September] and try to boost my rankings."
Before winning in Durban on Sunday, Xaba ran in international meets in France and Netherlands a few weeks ago and said she didn't have enough time to recover.
"I'm very happy about the time that I made today [Sunday]. I'm just blessed to win the Durban Spar because I never won it before, and also improved my time here," she said.
"My first race [overseas] was 5,000m in Paris and it went very well according to the plan. I was able to set a personal best of 15:10:42.
"I also went to the Netherlands and did the 10,000m and got my season best when I finished third. I learned a lot from the international athletes."
Xaba said her focus now is to qualify for the IAAF World Championships.
"If I don't achieve the standard [to qualify] for 5000m and 10,000m, I will switch to the marathon to represent the country in the world championships."
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