Karla and Mikhail take on gruelling Cape Town runs

Date: 19 October 2023 By: Andries van Zyl

Two athletes from the Soutpansberg, Karla van Zyl from the Soutpansberg Athletics Club and Mikhail Petersen from AFB Makhado, travelled all the way to Cape Town the past weekend to take part in the gruelling 46km Cape Town Trail Marathon and 42km Cape Town Marathon respectively.

Karla competed on Saturday, completing the 46km ultra-marathon in a time of nine hours and 25 minutes. During this time, she had to push her body to its limits, afterwards describing the trail run straight up Table Mountain with a 2,2km climb over single tracks and rough terrain as more demanding than the Comrades Marathon.

Mikhail competed in the road marathon on Sunday, completing the distance in a time of just over three hours and 57 minutes. "It was tougher than I expected as I was fighting off a hamstring cramp for the last 7km. It finally cramped up with 700m to go, but I managed to finish in spite of this. It was an absolutely amazing experience," said Mikhail. 

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Andries van Zyl

Andries joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in April 1993 as a darkroom assistant. Within a couple of months he moved over to the production side of the newspaper and eventually doubled as a reporter. In 1995 he left the newspaper group and travelled overseas for a couple of months. In 1996, Andries rejoined the Zoutpansberger as a reporter. In August 2002, he was appointed as News Editor of the Zoutpansberger, a position he holds until today.

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