SOUTH Africa’s Elana Meyer strolled to a third consecutive Kyoto City half-marathon victory in Japan on Sunday, but more important to her was the time of 1:07:57. With no competition after the first three kilometres — her nearest rival Yuri Kano of Japan fininshed nearly five minutes behind — the 1992 Olympic 10000m silver medalist still managed to achieve her goal of under 1:08:00. Meyer, who set the World 21,1km record of 1:06:44 in Tokyo in January, said she had to pace herself with some of the male competitors. ”The race in January was very competitive. Today I was out there on my own. I started fast and one of the girls tried to go with me, but she blew out….So I was really very happy with the time,” the 32-year-old Stellenbosch athlete said. ”In the big picture it will help me to do a good marathon in April.”