A strong South African team, headed up by Matt Beers and Alan Hatherly, will be contesting the medals at the 2023 UCI Marathon World Championships at Glentress Forest Park near Glasgow, Scotland on Sunday, 6 August.
By Sean Badenhorst
Appropriately, the men’s entry list includes some of the world’s top marathon racers, including two-time Absa Cape Epic winner, Beers, former Cape Epic winners, Georg Egger (Germany) and Lukas Baum (Germany) and former Marathon World Champions, Alban Lakata (Austria), Andreas Seewald (Germany), Leonardo Paez (Colombia), Tiago Ferreira (Portugal) and Henrique Avancini (Brazil).
Hatherly is the only real XCO specialist on the XCM start list. Well, the only regular current XCO World Cup top-10 finisher. While Beers brings brute power and incredible stamina to the start line, Hatherly brings speed. It’s not unusual for a XCO specialist to tackle the Marathon World Champs and it has resulted in a greater depth of challenge for the medals in previous years. The 2022 winner was Sam Gaze, who also won the XCC and Gravel World Champs titles last year. Like most of the top XOC racers, Gaze isn’t on this year’s XCM start list.
The combined pedigree of Hatherly and Beers undoubtedly gives South Africa it’s best shot at the win, or at least a medal, in years. They have the backing of Marco Joubert and Tristan Nortje, both fantastic marathon racers, who can finish in the top 20.
As for the rest of the South African men’s team, Michael Foster, Matthew Scott and Luyanda Tobigunya will no doubt gain valuable international racing experience with their participation, with the fast-improving Foster possessing the potential for a top 30 finish.
They will race on a 96.5km course with 3200 metres of ascent in weather that’s predicted to be cool and damp. Neither the distance nor the ascent is exceptional. Tough, but not excessive, which should produce a tighter battle for the title.
The best result so far by a South African male at the Marathon World Champs is a bronze medal by Burry Stander in 2010. That could change come Sunday as both Beers and Hatherly have the form, the ability and the experience to challenge for the win.
Candice Lill will pair up with Sarah Hill to be South Africa’s female contingent over the same course as the men. Hill’s notable achievements this year were wins at Attakwas Extreme, Race to the Sun and Karkloof Classic. She’ll need to be at her sharpest on Sunday in a strong international field where she could finish inside the top 30 if all goes well.
Lill’s marathon racing has been very solid this year, with a number of wins and a second place overall at the Absa Cape Epic (with Amy Wakefield). She’s been more focused on XCO since April and is one of only a handful of current XCO World Cup racers on the start list.
Among the favourites for the title will be 2021 Marathon World Champion, Mona Mitterwallner of Austria, while current Marathon World No. 1, Lejla Njemcevic (Bosnia & Herzogovina) leads a string of Europeans that occupy the next four places on the UCI’s current Marathon World rankings; they are Stephanie Dorhne (Germany), Estelle Morel (France), Katazine Sozner (Lithuania) and Adelheid Morath (Germany).
The best performance by a South African female at the Marathon World Champs until now has been the bronze medal won by Robyn de Groot in 2019. Lill has the potential for a top 10 finish on Sunday, but may even find herself in the medal hunt if things go smoothly. If they don’t, she always has the XCO to look forward to a few days later.
The marathon will be raced on Sunday, 6 August. It will not be broadcast.
