Ngomane unlikely to run Comrades

Sipho Ngomane is unlikely to to defend his title in the Comrades Marathon on Friday.

"As it looks now, I don't think I will be ready to race," the 24-year-old Harmony Athletic Club star said on Friday.

The Mpumalanga athlete strained his hamstring during an hour-long training jog last Saturday and has been unable to run since.

"If by Tuesday or Wednesday my leg is still burning, I will probably have to cancel Comrades until next year," the youngster lamented.

"If I take a chance and race Comrades this year, maybe there will be no more Sipho Ngomane."

He said that although he was bitterly disappointed, he'd rather miss the 2006 up run from Durban to Maritzburg and be 100 percent ready for his preferred down race in 12 months time.

"The only thing that's worrying me if I don't run this year is that my team manager (Harmony's Nick Bester) will maybe cut my salary, so I might just have to run and aim to complete the distance without actually racing," he explained.

Bester, himself a former Comrades champion, was equally as disappointed.

"Sipho is the future of Comrades. He can definitely win it a few more times because he is so talented," he said.

"His only problem is that he trains so hard, maybe too hard."

Fortunately for Ngomane, he has age on his side and will have many more years in which to boost his victory tally.