Glenrose and Tayla shape a modern-day sporting rivalry ahead of the Absa RYC CAPE TOWN 10k

Thirty-seven years ago, two young South African female athletes went head-to-head on the road in the South African Half Marathon championships in Durban. There was much in their favour – perfect conditions, a fast course and attractive financial incentives. The outcome was the third and fifth fastest times ever run for the distance on the […] The post Glenrose and Tayla shape a modern-day sporting rivalry ahead of the Absa RYC CAPE TOWN 10k appeared first on Sports Network Africa.

May 8, 2026 - 12:28

Glenrose and Tayla shape a modern-day sporting rivalry ahead of the Absa RYC CAPE TOWN 10k

Thirty-seven years ago, two young South African female athletes went head-to-head on the road in the South African Half Marathon championships in Durban. There was much in their favour – perfect conditions, a fast course and attractive financial incentives. The outcome was the third and fifth fastest times ever run for the distance on the planet.

Colleen de Reuck and Elana van Zyl – two of South Africa’s all time best athletes. Photyo – Stephen Granger

Elana Van Zyl Meyer, 23, and Colleen de Reuck, 25, provided another element which proved crucial in attaining their leading times – strong competition. They had both achieved significant results racing against lesser opposition, but in 1989 they needed one another to push the bar to world-class standards.

And on Sunday, weather permitting, two modern-era South African athletes at the top of their game, will go head-to-head in the Absa RUN YOUR CITY CAPE TOWN 10k as Glenrose Xaba and Tayla Kavanagh battle for supremacy.

Elana Meyer takes another national road title a year after bagging the 10km record in Durban in 1989. Photo – Stephen Granger

R10 000, equivalent to almost R100 000 today, was on offer in that Durban championship in 1989 to any athlete setting a national record for either the 10km race within a race (three separate timekeepers held watches at the 10km mark) or the full 21,1km half marathon.

Meyer bagged the first ten grand when she used her track speed to outsprint De Reuck to the 10km line to clock 31 min 47 sec and take down the five-year-old record held by another world-class athlete of similar age, Zola Budd.

Colleen de Reuck – one of South Africa’s best distance athletes – broke the national half marathon record in Durban in 1989. Photo – Stephen Granger

De Reuck’s strength and stamina were legendary and she drew away from her younger rival in the final quarter to win by 48 seconds in 68:38 and claim the second incentive cheque. Shortly before the East African wave swept through the international road-running circuit, only the Norwegian super-star Ingrid Kristiansen (66:40) and American Joan Benoit-Samuelson (68:34) had ever run faster.

Meyer, who finished in 69:26 to place her fifth on the all-time list behind another legendary Norwegian, Grete Waitz (68:40), would later elevate herself to number one in the world, winning gold at the World Half Marathon Championships and breaking the world record over that distance on several occasions.

Elana Meyer – world half marathon number one in the 1990s. Photo – Stephen Granger

Meyer’s last WR of 66:44 was set in Tokyo, a decade after her first sub-70 min race in Durban, and still stands as a national record.

“I was used to racing some of the best athletes in the world in track and cross country from about 14 years old,” Meyer recalled. “Later Colleen provided some of my toughest competition on the road. Those contests against the best helped me to develop as an athlete.”

Until last month, no South African had come close to Meyer’s time but Xaba, who improved Van Zyl’s 10km national record by one second with a 31:12 in Durban in 2024, came within 19 seconds in running third in a competitive race at the Istanbul Half Marathon, clocking a massive PB in 67:03, She looks forward to taking her form into Sunday’s race over 10km.

Glenrose Xaba celebrates another victory in Cape Town last year. Photo – Stephen Granger

“Istanbul was a great performance,” Xaba told SPNAfrica. “ I appreciated it a lot. I was able to run my personal best after a long time and that gives me motivation for the 2026 season ahead of me.

“I don’t think it will be sub-31 on Sunday, but I hope to achieve that some time this year! But I’m hoping for a competitive race and that my body can respond.”

Tayla Kavanagh – back to her best form. Photo -Action Photo

Xaba has been a cut above the rest as South Africa’s leading marathon and sub-marathon road athlete in recent years. Kavanagh, however, who has made a strong come-back to her best form this year, has provided a spark which could ignite another lasting rivalry in the sport.

The Durban-based athlete burst onto the scene as a teenager in 2021 with a sensational 32:10 win in the RUN YOUR CITY DURBAN 10k, but it was four years before she returned to that form with a 31:41 win at the Cape Town Peace Run last October.

Tayla Kavanagh and Glenrose Xaba – setting a new South African sporting rivalry. Photo – Stephen Granger

An upset last-gasp win over Xaba at the SPAR Women’s Grand Prix opener in Cape Town in March and two titles over 5000m and 10 000m in impressive times at the recent ASA Track and Field Championships at Stellenbosch, confirmed Kavanagh’s status as one of South Africa’s best-ever and the stage is set for a sporting rivalry which could stretch for several years and help catapult the pair ever higher in the global rankings.

Extreme weather threatens to dampen Sunday’s party, but the next race in the popular high-profile Absa RUN YOUR CITY series takes place in Durban in July – 37 years since that classic encounter between South African legends, Van Zyl and De Reuck.

While not yet confirmed, chances appear favourable for a contest between the country’s latest pair of world-class female athletes in Durban and, likely aided by the presence of leading East African athletes, the hopes for the first-ever sub-31 minute 10km time by a South African female athlete.