Kavanagh eyes positive start to 10km road season at SPAR Grand Prix after winning KZNA 5000m title

After producing a stellar performance to set a new 5000m personal best of 15:30 on the second and final day of the KwaZulu-Natal Athletics Senior, Masters and TVET Colleges Track & Field Championships on Saturday 21 March, Tayla Kavanagh is in confident mood of ahead of her 10km season opener. 

"I'm feeling happy with today’s performance,” she told #TheTopRunner. “As someone without a track background, it is so good to add track into the mix this year. I'm hoping it's going assist me to be fast on the road,” she said after dominating the event which saw Nokuthula Ntshangase, who recently joined the Nedbank Running Club, secure second place (17:20), and youngster Ntombenhle Mnyandu claim third (22:29).

Kavanagh celebrates winning the national 10km last November. Her victory in the KZNA 5000m championship race, will see her contest the national 5000m title at the ASA Senior Track and Field Championships in Stellenbosch in April. Photo Credit: Supplied.

Having broken 32 minutes over 10km for the first time last October when she clocked an impressive 31:41 to win the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon 10km Peace Run in October, Kavanagh started the year aiming to pick up where she left off at the end of 2025.

But injury prevented the Hollywood Athletics Club elite athlete from participating in the Absa RUN YOUR CITY GQEBERHA 10K on 1 March, which would have been her first 10km race of the year, Kavanagh has a new assignment. The 24-year-old reigning South African 10km Champion, announced that she will open her 2026 10km road running account at the Cape Town leg of the SPAR Women's Grand Prix on Sunday, 29 March.

Kavanagh ended the 2025 10km season strongly with a second place finish (32:01) behind Glenrose Xaba (31:57) at the Gqeberha leg of the SPAR Grand Prix on 27 September. Photo Credit: Micheal Sheehan / Gallo Images.

"Unfortunately, I missed the first road running event of the season after I picked the injury on the week of the event. But I'm back in training now and I'm preparing for the next assignment. My focus now is to run the SPAR (Cape Town) on Sunday. This year, I'm doing all the coastal SPAR races (Cape Town, Gqeberha and Durban) because those are fast. I'll skip Johannesburg and Pretoria. I'm hoping that the competition will be high as sometimes they bring the Ethiopian runners," she concluded.