One of Zimbabwe's top female middle- and long-distance runners Thabita Tsatsa raced into international recognition when she won the 103rd edition of the prestigious City to City Heritage Ultra Marathon in South Africa on Monday.

"Tsatsa's outstanding performance in the City to City marathon on Monday is another sign that shows that we've come of age as both our male and female road runners are now a force to be reckoned with in international events," said Joseph Mungwari, the president of the National athletics association of Zimbabwe.

Tsatsa showed the women's field a clean pair of heels as she clocked 3 hours 26 minutes 14 seconds to win the race, which ran from Johannesburg to Tshwane (formerly Pretoria) this year, covering 50 km.

Van Niekerk trailed Tsatsa all the time but the Zimbabwe woman was far enough ahead to run her own race.

The pair had a big gap on Akukothela, who was placed third, and the rest of the women's field came filtering in slowly after that.

Source: Xinhua