18 September 1976

This was a historic day for South African marathoning when Lesotho ’ s Gabashane Rakabaele became the first black athlete to win the “ open ” SA Marathon ( i . e ., open to runners of all races ), five months after he became the first black winner of the Two Oceans ultra-marathon . The SA Marathon was held in conjunction with the Stellenbosch Marathon , which in the 1970s and 1980s was one of the country ’ s premier marathons , but was sadly discontinued after 1993 . On the six-lap course through the streets of the university town , Rakabaele and Johannes Thobejane ran at the head of the field , but with two of the 7km laps remaining they were joined by Andrew Greyling and Derrick Marcisz . Rakabaele and Greyling , who was better known as a track athlete , broke away with 3km to run , and it turned into a sprint finish over the last 800m . Surprisingly , Rakabaele reached the finish line on the Coetzenburg track first , four seconds ahead of Greyling , in 2:23:49 . The winner of the traditional Stellenbosch Marathon , run at the same time on a separate and much more difficult course , was Andrew Marsay in 2:37:58 .

Gabashane Rakabaele

5 September 1977

First run in 1956 , the Golden Reef Marathon was run on a point-to-point course from Brakpan to Johannesburg in its early days . On this day , its 22nd running was won , for the second year in a row , by Alan Robb . The then two-time Comrades champion , who earlier that year had set a new record for the ‘ Up Run ’ at Comrades , clocked 2:32:53 to beat Neil Coville by 93 seconds . The previous year , Robb had run 2:28:27 . The women ’ s title at Golden Reef also went to a two-time Comrades champion , Lettie van Zyl , and like Robb , she also got her second victory in a row in 3:39:30 . Both would score their third successive Comrades wins in 1978 .

Alan Robb

10 September 1977

From its beginning in 1965 , the Stellenbosch Marathon saw some of South Africa ’ s best athletes winning the title , among them De Villiers Lamprecht ( twice ), Willie Olivier and Dave Levick . On this day , Brian Chamberlain joined this group when he improved his personal best by more than three minutes to win in 2:18:30 , a record for the six-lap course through the streets of the university town , and making him just the fifth South African to duck under 2:20 . He finished 3:15 ahead of Andries Krogmann , who just a week earlier had won the SA Interprovincial Cross-country Title and was running his debut marathon . A mere two weeks later , Chamberlain won the SA Marathon , and in 1978 he retained his Stellenbosch title . He also won the Two Oceans Marathon in both 1977 and 1978 .

Brian Chamberlain

9 September 1979

Sometimes an athlete has a superb year , when everything just seems to go right . Johnny Halberstadt had such a year in 1979 , and September was the high point . On 1 September , he started off by winning the SA Cross-country title in George , by a whopping 43 seconds , to claim his only national crown in this discipline , then eight days later he won the DAC Marathon , clocking 2:12:19 , the fastest time by a South African that year . Before the month was out , he also scored a repeat win in the City to City 50km in 2:51:16 ( for the “ Up ” run from Joburg to Pretoria ). On top of this , in May he had finished second in the Comrades Marathon , and in October he was second in the SA Marathon ( after having won the national title in 1978 ).

Johnny Halberstadt

11 September 1983

The Durban Athletic Club ( DAC ) Marathon was the oldest club marathon in South Africa , i . e . outside of the SA Championships , and had 68 editions when it was sadly discontinued after the 2001 event . The first race was in 1927 and was won by Marthinus Steytler , who would represent South Africa in the Olympic Marathon the next year . On this day , Thompson Magawana , the 1980 SA Champion , became only the fourth runner to win the race in under 2:20 when he took the title in 2:18:58 for his second victory in a row . Comrades champion Lindsay Weight won the women ’ s race in 2:50:04 ( which placed her fourth on the SA list for the year ).

Thompson Magawana

Images : Action Photo SA , SMacPix & courtesy Comrades Marathon Association , Two Oceans Marathon , Pintrest