Belachew ready to take on Nedbank Runified Breaking Barriers 50km
After announcing himself to the South African athletics-loving public with a memorable win at the 2022 Totalsports Two Oceans Marathon, Ethiopia's Edndale Belachew is coming back to take on the Nedbank Runified Breaking Barriers 50km. The race which takes place in Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality on Sunday 26 February is fast and flat having produced three world records since its inception in 2021.
And with a 2:11 personal best over the standard marathon distance the Maxed Elite Running Club man has both the marathon speed and ultra-marathon experience to not only emerge victorious but perhaps also to challenge the 2:40:13 World Record which was set by Stephen Mokoka last year.
"My training has been going very well in the camp and I am looking forward to an exciting and fast race,” said Belachew who is known to train in the East African nation's mountain ranges some of which are over 4000m above sea level. Accompanying the tall and affable Belachew will be a very strong Nedbank running club contingent. His compatriots Daba Ifa Debele and Gadisa Bekele Gutama who ran a 1-2 finish in last year’s Soweto Marathon and will be making their ultra-debuts this weekend.
But local athletes will have something to say about who lifts the title in Gqeberha on Sunday. In particular, 2022 runner-up Tete Dijana and the third place finisher Edward Mothibi. The pair have been locked in a training camp with their Nedbank Running Club teammates in Rustenburg under the watchful eye of their coach Dave Adams.
“We have been in the very same camp we were for Comrades training specifically for this event and we are ready for action,” said Dijana who followed up his breakthrough performance at the 2022 Nedbank Runified with a maiden Comrades Marathon victory last August. Keep an eye out for Adele Broodryk. Having recently joined the Nedbank Running Club from Murray and Roberts Running Club, Broodryk will use the the race as part of her 2023 Comrades Marathon preparations.