By Razeen Gutta
South African road running record breaker Glenrose Xaba believes she can go even faster than her time on Sunday when she broke a 23-year-old national record.
Xaba’s fourth place finish at the Absa Run Your City 10 km race in Durban on Sunday came in 31:12 – one second faster than Elana Meyer, who previously held the national record.
Xaba’s time was 43 seconds faster than her personal best; and the seven-time national 10,000 metre champion is far from done.
“You can be a record-holder but you need to stay humble and keep working hard because there are other athletes who are coming behind you and want to be like you,” Xaba said in The Citizen.
“So this is no time to relax. It’s time to work very hard and focus on moving forward. I’m very glad to be a national record-holder but I wish to break the record again. I’ll be very excited if I can run under 31 minutes.”
Xaba is coached by Violet Semenya and her wife, legendary former Olympic champion Caster Semenya. And that is something she sees as one of the main reasons for her success.
“When I started training with Caster I saw that if you want to be a great athlete you need to work hard. You can’t relax,” Xaba said.
“Caster continued to work hard, even though she was a world champion. She showed me you need to have discipline and motivate yourself to believe you can do anything.”
Pictured above: Glenrose Xaba
Sources: @gsport4girls