Lesotho’s Tebogo Noosi had too much in the tank for defending Champion, Edwin Sesipi in the 22km Sanlam Peace Trail in Cape Town on Saturday.

Noosi and Sesipi were running together until they hit the bottom of the Glen, roughly 8km into the race. By the time they hit the top of Kloof Nek, approximately 13km into the race, Noosi had broken away from the Sesipi and controlled the race from there.

The Maseru based athlete only recently moved to the trails, but judging by his performance, Noosi seems to have found his niche.

“I was strong on the hills. That is where I was able to break away from (Edwin) Sesipi”, said the winner who crossed the line in 1:28.30 – bettering the previous course record by a whopping 30seconds. The previous record of 1:29.00 run in 2015 by Givemore Mudzinganyama. (Edwin) Sesipi was second just under a minute later (1:29.24) with the previous record holder, Givemore Mudzinganyama topping out the podium (1:32.00).

The ladies run was dominated by defending champion Annemart Loubser who cruised home in 1:48.57. Triathlete Vicky van der Merwe, who will be looking to race the Xterra’s more, was second (1:59.28) and SA Marathon Champion, Danette Smith rounding out the top three (2:02.48).

Loubser broke away within the first 2km and by 8km had a three minute lead. Van Der Merwe was able to claw some of that gap back, however Loubser’s lead was too great and she was never headed.
“It was a good run. We went out very fast, faster than last year, in the opening kilometres because Danette (Smith), Vicky (van der Merwe), Carla (van Huysteen) and Danette (Smith) were all running hard. Once I got away though, the pace dropped down a bit”, said winner Loubser.

The 12km Peace Trail run was won by Admire Rushika (48:27) with Tanya Posthumus-Fox taking the women’s race (1:11.50).

READ MORE ON: cape-town-marathon ct marathon