12 November 1955

The visit by a West German team to South Africa at the end of 1955 provided a big boost to local athletes . One of the visitors was Werner Lueg , who three years before had equalled the World Record for the metric mile ( 1500m ) with his 3:43.0 at the German Championships . On this day in Port Elizabeth , after meetings in Paarl and Bellville , he came up against the SA mile champion , Athol Jennings , who had also won the national 3-mile title earlier that year . Lueg narrowly outsprinted Jennings over 1 mile , 4:09.5 to 4:09.9 , which meant that Jennings broke his own SA Record of 4:11.7 , but this mark was unfortunately never ratified as a national record . In fact , a number of faster times were run in the next two years , but it was only in 1958 that the next SA Record for the mile was officially ratified when Harold Clark clocked 4:05.4 in May 1958 . In the first test between South Africa and West Germany , in Bloemfontein early in December , Lueg ’ s victory margin over Jennings was even smaller , 4:13.2 to 4:13.4 .

Athol Jennings

Record-holder for the mile ( 3:54.4 ) and 1960 Olympic 800m Champion , in 4:06.4 , but on this night there was no stopping him . Clad in his maroon university vest and cheered on by his home crowd , he ran away from his rivals to finish in 3:59.7 . South Africa thus became the 16th country to produce a Dream Miler .

Interestingly , shortly before beating Lamprecht at the SA Championships , Snell had become the first runner to clock a sub-four-minute mile on the African continent , with his 3:59.6 in Durban . He would go on to claim double gold at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo that October , winning both the 800m and 1500m , and then broke his own 1-mile World Record on 17 November , clocking 3:54.04 in New Zealand . Meanwhile , Lamprecht , who won nine SA titles during his career , would run another four dream miles after that first one in 1964 , including one on the second anniversary ( 13 November 1966 ) of the first one , in exactly the same time !

13 November 1970

De Villiers Lamprecht is famous for being the first South African to run a dream mile , on 13 November 1964 . What is less well known is that he set another SA Record on the exact same date six years later . On this evening , at a Coetzenburg meeting commemorating

his first sub-four achievement , Lamprecht scored an easy victory in 3:57.7 to break his own national mark of 3:58.6 , run in 1968 . Deon Dekkers ( 4:02.1 ) and Danie Malan ( 4:02.2 ) were distant podium finishers . Remarkably , these were not the only two SA mile records set on 13 November : In 1937 , Klasie Wessels ran 4:16.0 in Port Elizabeth on the same date .

15 November 1980

The South African Record for the women ’ s mile has also enjoyed a rich history in the month of November , notably with Sarina Cronje clocking 4:28.40 on the famous Coetzenburg track on this day to record the first sub-4:30 by a South African woman . The previous national mark had been set earlier that year in February ( also in Stellenbosch ), when Sonja Laxton ran 4:34.00 to beat Bambie Heiberg ( 4:35.30 ), both of whom thus dipped under the previous national mark , 4:35.90 , set by Cronje on 12 November 1977 , which in turn had improved on Laxton ’ s 4:41.00 , run on 13 November 1976 . Cronje ’ s 4:28.40 mark stood for nearly nine years , until Tanya Peckham ran 4:27.18 in March 1989 in Port Elizabeth , and since then , only two other South African women have dipped under 4:30 for the mile , SA Record-holder Zola Budd-Pieterse and Dominique Scott-Efurd .

13 November 1964

This was one of the most memorable days in the history of South African athletics , and it was celebrated on the famous Coetzenburg track in Stellenbosch , when Matie student De Villiers Lamprecht became the country ’ s first athlete to run a sub-four-minute ‘ Dream Mile ’ – and the first in the world to do it barefoot . Earlier in the year at the SA Championships , Lamprecht had finished second to Peter Snell of New Zealand , the World

De Villiers Lamprecht ( 1964 )

De Villiers Lamprecht ( 1968 )

In our February 2024 edition , we took a deep statistical look at the history of the Dream Mile in South Africa , from De Villiers Lamprecht ’ s first Sub-four in 1964 right up to present day , including a full list of all 66 Dream Milers produced thus far by the country , the progression of the SA Record , a list of the country ’ s most prolific Dream Milers , and more . You can read it here .

Sarina Cronje ( left ) racing Sonja Laxton

Images : Hoffie Hoffmeister / Athletics History , Micheal Sheehan / Gallo Images