A hamstring injury sidelined the 38-year-old four-time Olympian, forcing her to miss out on The People’s Race in November.

Van Zyl insists she is determined not to let this race slip by.

"I had a bit of a forced rest after the Olympics unfortunately. I had a hamstring that had been bothering me for a few months before Olympics and after the Olympics I found out I had actually torn my hamstring and that took quite a long time unfortunately,” Van Zyl said.

“It took from three months to five months to heal and yeah, a lot of interventions to try and heal the thing faster but unfortunately it was really stubborn so I started my preparations only in December but it was slow and I had to walk around and now at last, it's my second week of just running and so far it's going well.

“It's just that I'm a bit unfit. I really want to be good so I'm doing everything I can to be the best that I can be in about two and half months, so yeah, it's not a lot of time but it's a lot of time, if you have the extra muscle memory to just get fit and I'm positive about it because I'm really hungry to be better at Oceans than I have been in previous years."

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Van Zyl may not be as fit as she would have liked heading into the Two Oceans Marathon, but it's a race she is determined to win. Having secured a top finish twice she says she is committed to running it every year until she crosses the finish line first.

"I know going into each race I want to be my best and yeah, unfortunately just one Oceans, I've never had the race just go my way, it's been always a battle all going into Oceans or just doing the race, there was always something happening,” she added.

“So, I really want that one race where everything just clicks and I hope it will be at Oceans. It's one race I really have a big desire to win so we'll continue to do that until I win it."

Local Start Time Venue	06 Feb at 06:30 PM
Local Time	06 Feb at 04:30 PM
Toss	Giflo Young Peoples CC won the toss and chose to batting
Country	South Africa
City	Paarl
Venue	Boland Park
Established	1965
Result	Giflo Young Peoples CC won by 36 runs

Finished Boland T20 Super League