The legendary Zola Budd will be part of a field of nearly 20000 athletes to take to the road for the 2013 Comrades Marathon on Sunday, 2 June. Budd completed her first ever ultra-marathon last year alongside good friend and Comrades veteran Bruce Fordyce who finished his thirtieth race. The pair ran the last 25 kilometres of the race side by side to finish in a time of 8 hours 6 minutes and 9 seconds, which secured bronze medals for both. Running again this year in the colours of The Unlimited Running Club, Budd has now set her sights on a silver medal and is aiming to finish the gruelling 87km uphill race between Durban and Pietermaritzburg in under seven and a half hours. Budd ran her qualifying race for Comrades in Florida (USA) in December and finished the Jacksonville Marathon in a time of 2 hours and 55 minutes. At 47, Zola says that she is in better shape than last year and is confident that a silver medal finish is realistic due to the combination of her experience from the 2012 Comrades and her current level of training. “Doing Comrades last year has definitely influenced my training and race schedules for this year’s event. I’ve changed my training programme and have upped my mileage significantly as I’m much stronger now. As it is an up run this year, I’ve added very tedious hill sessions on the tread mill and have also included some serious track workouts,” said Budd, who does most of her training in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in the United States, where she and her family have been living for the past five years. According to Budd, her training during the all-critical month of April has been far more consistent than last year. Judging from the excellent time of 79 minutes and 58 seconds she ran to win the North Myrtle Beach Divas half marathon, Budd’s stage is set for a great Comrades Marathon. Looking back at her first Comrades, Budd said that it was the hardest race she’d ever run in her life. The furthest she’d ever run before the . . .

Evan Binge of Fourways in Johannesburg became the first South African skateboarder to win a wildcard entry for the amateur contest at this year’s Maloof Money Cup skateboarding world championships. Binge pulled out all the stops and impressed the judges with his skills on the first stop of the Skateboarding for Hope tour at the Boogaloos Skate Park in Randburg. This community outreach initiative is a joint collaboration between the Northern Cape provincial government and Maloof Skateboarding with the financial backing of Anglo American’s Kumba Iron Ore. The road show promotes skateboarding as an easy, affordable and accessible sport as part of the run-up to the annual world championships event in Kimberley. The Maloof Money Cup skateboarding world championships presented by Kumba Iron Ore will be hosted in Kimberley in the Northern Cape is September and is widely considered to be the greatest skateboarding contest in the world and the only world championship event. The three-day skateboarding extravaganza showcases the pinnacle in global and local skateboarding talent. Over the next five months, the Skateboarding for Hope road show will travel throughout South Africa with retail partner Boogaloos to host skateboarding clinics, demonstrations and contests in key centres. In addition, the provincial government also stage a further series of activations in the deep rural areas of the Northern Cape Province. The events help to promote skateboarding as a sport and to identify emerging local skaters. For many children, the road show is their first exposure to the sport and it has touched the lives of thousands of youngsters to date. This year’s scintillating Skateboarding for Hope line-up will feature numerous activations nationwide outside of the Northern Cape, including three new large scale Grand Slam events in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. These new events are in answer to a tremendous demand for more large scale skateboarding events to service the . . .

Nedbank’s insurance company has confirmed that it will once again provide free life cover to participants in this year’s Nedbank sani2c mountain bike race, which starts in Underberg in KwaZulu-Natal on May 14. The company, which came on board as official life insurance sponsor to the event in 2012, will make 360Life policies available to every one of the 4 500 riders across the three-day Race (May 16 to 18), Adventure (May 15 to 18) and Trail (May 14 to 16) components. According to Nedbank’s insurance executive Lance Blumeris, the policy included R500 000 worth of accidental death and physical impairment cover and would be valid for the month of May. Blumeris said riders could activate the policy on the official race website and would also have the option to upgrade to R1 million worth of cover at a nominal once-off premium before May 13. After the event, participants who wished to convert their cover to a standalone long-term policy could do so before the end of June without any underwriting, he said. “Mountain biking is a very physically demanding and unpredictable sport. In partnering with the world’s largest paired stage race, we hope to give riders peace-of-mind so they can concentrate on enjoying the route,” said Blumeris. Last year, two Trail riders were tragically killed in a motor vehicle accident as they were returning home to Johannesburg. Blumeris said Nedgroup Life had been able to assist their families by paying out the policies on these riders. “We may not be able to take away the pain felt by a client’s loved ones but we can help in practical ways by providing cover for everything from death and disability to critical illness and income protection.” He said the 360Life policy was designed to be flexible and to adapt to a client’s changing needs and circumstances. According to race organiser Glen Haw, the policy was just another way in which the race and its sponsors provided a holistic experience for riders. “Anything . . .

Determined to retain their hard-earned trophy, last year's national champions from Khayelitsha are ready to take on all-comers as children from across South Africa prepare for the outdoor fun, competition and gees of the 2013 KIA Street Soccer League in May. This year's national champions will not only lift the coveted trophy, but will also stand a chance of winning a trip of a lifetime to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. On Friday 10, May, Sporting Chance, in association with title sponsor KIA Motors, associate sponsor Mille and media partners Supersport Let's Play, Good Hope FM and Ukhozi FM, will roll out the annual national neighbourhood street soccer programme that will reach approximately 6000 boys and girls under the age of 13, empowering and exposing them to a brighter future through the valuable lessons of sport. The Cape Town sides will also interact with their favourite Ajax PSL players during the four month tournament, as they participate and assist with the programme. A positive spin-off from the 2010 World Cup Ticket Fund legacy, the KIA Street Soccer programme is the largest of its kind, giving aspiring youngsters from Gauteng, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Free State provinces a large dose of positive and healthy energy, which lingers long past the tournament's final match. With last year's inclusion of Welkom in the Free State, the programme is now closer to making street soccer available to all South African youth, whether urban or rural-based. Conceptualised and co-ordinated by youth sports development agency Sporting Chance, the KIA Street Soccer programme, supported by FIFA and SAFA, teaches life skills through the game of soccer to children who need it most and where they need it most. The communities within the 40 participating regions are hampered by poverty and crime, and lack adequate and safe facilities and stimulating after-school and weekend activities. “Sport can be such a powerful catalyst for upliftment,” said . . .

Former champion Neil MacDonald, riding with new partner Brandon Stewart, notched up his second overall victory in the nine-day Old Mutual joBerg2c mountain bike race at Scottburgh on Saturday. The FedGroup-Itec riders completed the 910km journey from Heidelberg in Gauteng to the KwaZulu-Natal south coast in 34:11:05, taking four stage wins in the process. They finished 11 minutes clear of MacDonald’s former team-mate Waylon Woolcock, with whom he won the 2011 event, and Lourens Luus of RE:CM (34:22:21). Woolcock and Luus, who had been trailing by four-and-a-half minutes at the start of the 86km final stage, suffered mechanical problems that put paid to their title chances. Bridge duo Timo Cooper and Nico Pfitzenmaier, who completed the final stage sixth in 3:12:29, rounded out the podium with an aggregate time of 35:02:57. First on the final day was the Contego pairing of Louis-Bresler Knipe and Belgian team-mate Kevin van Hoovels, who powered their way along the edge of the Indian Ocean to claim their third stage win in 3:02:09. They finished a respectable seventh overall in 36:33:50 after dropping out of contention in the earlier stages due to illness. MacDonald and Stewart finished the ninth stage second in 3:02:44, with Woolcock and Luus following them home in 3:09:37. The leaders, driven by Van Hoovels, had set a blistering pace throughout the stage that descended through the sugarcane fields towards the beach. Despite this, the top contenders were all together at the first waterpoint around 39km after the start at Jolivet in the Highflats region. Then, 6km further on, Woolcock suffered a chain break, which forced RE:CM to chase hard as Contego, FedGroup-Itec and Bridge forged ahead. On the steep Work to be Done climb in the Vernon Crookes Nature Reserve, Contego and FedGroup-Itec pulled clear and stayed away to the finish. MacDonald, who was also runner-up last year alongside Woolcock, said the race held a very special place . . .

Lady Luck smiled on race leaders Neil MacDonald and Brandon Stewart as mechanical problems beset their nearest challengers on the penultimate stage of the nine-day Old Mutual joBerg2c in KwaZulu-Natal on Friday. After a rocky start at MacKenzie Club near Ixopo, the FedGroup-Itec riders overcame a number of obstacles on the 102km stage, which included a much-anticipated technical descent into the Umkomaas River Valley. They cruised alone into the finish at Jolivet Farm in the Highflats region in 4:06:51 (31:08:21) to claim their fourth stage win and consolidate their overnight lead. They were just under a minute ahead of the luckless RE:CM pairing of Waylon Woolcock and Lourens Luus, who had punctured a front wheel and destroyed a rear en route. The latter recovered well from these setbacks to finish in 4:07:46 (31:12:44) to hold onto the runner-up spot on the day and the overall standings. They finished seven minutes clear of Contego’s Kevin van Hoovels and Louis-Bresler Knipe, who limped home with a seized cassette in 4:14:58. The Bridge duo of Nico Pfitzenmaier and Timo Cooper finished fourth on the day, clocking 4:21:22, and remain third overall (31:50:28). According to MacDonald, it had been a tough start to the day but they had recovered quickly and came back fighting. “There were a couple of drags near the beginning and Brandon almost lost his jockey there. Then, on the descent into the valley, the guys were putting pressure on us to go down fast and I crashed twice.” Knipe, Van Hoovels and Luus were leading the charge towards the valley floor when MacDonald and Pfitzenmaier went down in a crash behind them. Woolcock, who had been with the fallen riders, seized the opportunity to try and catch the leaders. “I put the hammer down there and maybe overcooked it as I punctured my front wheel.” After losing valuable time plugging it, Woolcock had to chase to catch his partner, who was unaware of his troubles, and the FedGroup-Itec . . .