Russian trio favourites for Comrades glory

The Russian trio of Tatyana Zhirkova and twin sisters Elena and Olesya Nurgalieva will be hard to beat in the Comrades marathon on Sunday.

The three have failed only twice to finish among the top three in all the Comrades runs in which they have competed since 2003.

In 2004, Olesya was fourth and Tatyana fifth in the "up" run from Durban to Pietermaritzburg.

Elena has been the most successful of the three. She won in 2003, 2004 and 2006. In 2005, she was third and last year second.

Her fastest Comrades time was the six hours, seven minutes 46 seconds in the "down" run in 2003. Her slowest time was 6:12:19.

Two of her victories were in the "up" run, including the one in 2006 when she set a route record of 6:09:24.

On statistics alone, Elena should be the favourite to complete her "up" hat-trick on Sunday.

Olesya's only Comrades win was last year, when she clocked 6:10:03, beating Elena by 29 seconds.

Zhirkova won in 2005 when she ran an astounding 5:58:51 to become one of only three women who have broken the six-hour barrier. However, she has never beaten the twins in a race from Durban to Pietermaritzburg.

To emphasise their status as front-runners, the Russians took first, second and third in the Two Oceans here earlier this year. Olesya won, with her sister in second place.

The three follow a training programme that is focussed exclusively on the two big SA ultra-marathons. They do their preparations at a camp near the Black Sea.

Olesya has competed in some other major events recently and improved her best standard marathon (42.2 km) time to 2:30.

It will be a major surprise, therefore, if one of these three does not win the 2008 title.