Judging by the past weekend's results, this saying is definitely relevant to the athletes of the Nedbank Running Club (NRC). It would seem as if they really relish a good battle, because in two of the races in which they competed the outcome was decided by mere seconds.

In Sportcentre's The Farm Run in George, 21 year old Francois Maquassa and 18-year-old Dullan Solomons duelled it out right up to the line. In the end it was Maquassa who won by a hair's breadth due to a well-timed acceleration.

His winning time for the 10 km race was 33:51, with Solomons crossing the line a second later. Booi Salman (Oudtshoorn) was third in 36:10. Ashwill Hendricks (NRC) finished 9th in 45:12.

The other do-or-die NRC dual happened at the King Price 21 km race in Irene, where Derocious Makhobalo and Lucky Mtshali were involved in a classic running chess match. Both athletes were making their moves, but to no avail as neither was prepared to relent. It was only in the final kilometre that Makhobalo was able to open a slight lead on his rival.

Makhobalo won the half-marathon in 1:10:16, with Mtshwali coming second in 1:10:20. Bafana Dube (Transnet) crossed the line in third place running 1:11:00.

Another highlight from a NRC perspective was the performance of its athletes in The Farm Run 21 km. They managed to totally dominate the race, taking first, second and third places. Etienne Plaatjies won in 1:11:52, Godwin Heyns was second in 1:16:28 and Elfonzo Pieterse third in 1:17:52. Wouter Franzenburg was sixth.

Carla Spanegenberg (NRC) finished third (1:43:35) in the women's race. Elize Kloppers (Hartenbos) won in 1:34:38 and Lizel Grobler (Knysna) came second in 1:43:35.

Kirsty Weir (NRC) raced to a third-place finish in The Farm Run 10 km-race for women. Her time was 50:07. Macnita Samuels (Knysna) won in 45:06 and Daniel Feldman (Temp) came second in 45:47.
The NRC athletes also dominated the Tembisa 10 km race, with Lucky Nkasi winning in 29:44 and Thabang Mosiako coming third in 30:35. Desmond Mokgoba (Maxed Athlete) came second in 30:33.
Falavio Sehlohle (NRC) raced to a third-place finish in the Tembisa Street Mile. His time was 4:09. Jerry Motsau (Pukke) won in 4:06.

Mzwenkosi Mjaja (NRC) put in a gutsy performance at the KwaZulu-Natal 10 km Championships in Durban. With 2 km to go, it seemed as if he was going to miss out on a podium finish as he was in the fourth place. But somehow he managed to find enough energy for one last surge, which enabled him to catch up and pass two athletes to take second. His time was 30:58.

Sampie Mokgatla finished third in the BASF 32 km race in Vanderbijlpark. His time was 2:10:38. William Morobe (ArcelorMittal) won in 1:54:00.

In spite of his finishing ninth in a season's best time of 2:19:13 at the Dublin Marathon event Africa Mailola can't help feeling slightly disappointed.

'I was hoping to improve on my best time, but as luck would have it, I started to cramp in my left foot during the second half of the race. I told myself I was not going to stop. All I did was slow down slightly until the pain subsided. Unfortunately, the moment I accelerated the cramping flared up again.'

He complimented the organisers on well-organised race.

Gerda Steyn ran a best marathon time of 2:51:26 in Dublin.