{"id":16112,"date":"2025-11-25T13:30:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T11:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/top-sa-runners-prepare-for-showdown-at-soweto-marathon\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:31:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:31:24","slug":"top-sa-runners-prepare-for-showdown-at-soweto-marathon","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/top-sa-runners-prepare-for-showdown-at-soweto-marathon\/","title":{"rendered":"Top SA runners prepare for showdown at Soweto Marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Four-time Soweto Marathon champion Irvette van Zyl of South Africa (SA) says she is eagerly looking forward to finally racing against her Hollywood Athletics Club teammate Gerda Steyn, also from SA, at this year\u2019s edition of the event.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Van Zyl withdrew at the last minute in 2024 due to a hamstring injury, a setback that allowed Lesotho\u2019s Neheng Khatala to clinch her maiden title.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to SABC Sport, Van Zyl said she is fully fit again and excited to return to the streets of Soweto. She added that Steyn\u2019s long-awaited debut in the iconic People\u2019s Race brings an extra spark to the competition.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>With her recovery complete, Van Zyl is determined to give a strong performance and, if everything falls into place, reclaim the crown she has worn multiple times before.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":16113,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-16112","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Four-time Soweto Marathon champion Irvette van Zyl of South Africa (SA) says she is eagerly looking forward to finally racing","published_date":"2025-11-25 15:28:37","news_description":"Four-time Soweto Marathon champion Irvette van Zyl of South Africa (SA) says she is eagerly looking forward to finally racing","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/16112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/16112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20060,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/16112\/revisions\/20060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=16112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}