TUESDAY, 9.30AM:
THE 1997 Comrades marathon winner Charl Mattheus will run in the Davos 67km mountain race in the Swiss Alps on July 27. Mattheus was unsure whether he would run in the marathon after pulling a hamstring muscle while on a training run. “It was touch and go whether I would accept the invitation. I picked up an injury a week after the Comrades marathon while on a training run with Nick Bester during a development project in Delmas,” he said.
Mattheus will be aiming at winning the Davos event after finishing second, third and fourth in the last three years. Bester and Ben Janse van Vuuren are the only South Africans who have won the Davos, in 1989 and 1993 respectively.
Elias Stemmer, who won the Foot of Africa marathon four times; Eric Mhlongo, runner-up in the Two Oceans marathon; and Michael McDermott, South Africa’s most successful trail runner, will accompany Mattheus. Mhlongo and McDermott will compete in the shorter 29km trail.
“I will go over there and enjoy myself. If I win I could return with 8 000 Swiss francs in my pocket,” added Mattheus.