With her victory in last year’s Comrades Wostmann, who trains at the High Performance Centre (HPC), became only the fourth athlete ever to win the Two Oceans and the Comrades in the same year. Derek Preiss (1974 and 1975), Frith van der Merwe (1989) and Elena Nurgalieva from Russia (2004 and 2012), are the only other athletes who were able to accomplish this feat.
Lindsey Parry (head coach at Tuks/HPC) emphasized that making running history will not be what the Comrades will be about for Wostmann on Sunday.
“Caroline’s only focus will be to stick to the race plan we agreed on. I think we have planned a good race. I know you can never expect to win a race but we are expecting to be competitive. The good thing is that, as far as I am concerned, there is no pressure on Caroline. The fact that she has won the Two Oceans means that she has already achieved a great result for the year.”
What does it take to win Comrades?
“It is no secret. The fastest time on the day will win the race and we are aiming to run the fastest time. It is not impossible for Caroline to go under six hours but that is not our target.”
Parry expects that the women’s race might boil down to a battle between Wostmann, Charné Bosman (@Nedbank Dream Team) and Britain’s Ellie Greenwood (@Nedbank Dream Team). Last year Bosman, who also trains at the HPC, was second and Greenwood finished second in 2014.
