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The highly talented South African athlete, Elana Meyer,
lines up as favourite at Saturday's Mazaltán
gran maraton Pacifico in Mexico. Hoping to repeat her
win of last year.
Meyer comes from a 'trio' of South Africa's top performing
female athletes ever, who were born in the same year
or two years apart. The athlete born in 1964, is Colleen
De Reuck who was the winner of the 21K race, run in
conjunction with the marathon, her time was also a course
record 76:19. De Reuck is now an American citizen and
she was often over-shadowed by the performance of her
'peers' with Zola Budd being born in 1966, the same
year as Meyer. Budd was South Africa's top performer
at the age of 16, when she set a then 5000m World Record,
which was not recognised due to that country's internal
policies.
Meyer emerged as the top South African female performer
in the 90's and her considerable talent over the half-marathon
was considered a stepping stone to the marathon, where
it was thought that her immense talent would certainly
threaten the then world record.
On her debut in at Boston, a tale wind pushed her to
a debut time of 2:25:15, a time she is yet to improve
on. After all that has been expected of her over the
distance, and after numerous attempts over the distance
the tiny athlete from Boland was unable to produce the
performances that her 21K times suggest she is capable
of.
Up until last year, Meyer had yet to win a marathon
race and her 1st win over the distance was a training
run over the distance in Cape Town. Following on from
that win Meyer went to win in a new course record at
the Mazaltán gran maraton Pacifico in Mexico.
For her efforts she won the automobile and now goes
into Saturday's race on an 'unbeaten streak', with the
aim of adding to her car selection.
Meyer's winning time in 2001 was 2:32:53, whether she
breaks 2:30 will probably depend on whether it is necessary
to exert herself, however a new course record makes
for happy driving.
source Time-to-Run
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