ON THIS DAY

31 December 1904

Only one South African title race over one mile or longer has ever been held in December , and it happened when the National Championships were held in Cape Town on 31 December 1904 and 2 January 1905 . Defending champion Charles Hefferon , who was born in England and came to South Africa after living in Canada , had no trouble winning the 4 miles again on 31 December , clocking 22:09.4 , and two days later , he also won his second mile title in a national record 4:34.6 . He had won both title earlier that years in the previous SA Champs in Joburg .

In his career in SA , Hefferon would win both the 1-mile and 4-mile titles each year from 1904 to 1909 , and when the 10 miles was held for the first time in 1909 , he won that as well , for a then unprecedented total of 13 SA titles . Although he never won the national marathon title , Hefferon won the silver medal in the 1908 Olympic Marathon in London , crossing the line in 2:56:06 to become the first South African to run under three hours .

26 December 1958 11 December 1982

Two South African mile records have been set in December , the first occurring during the famed Boxing Day Meeting in Paarl , which produced many outstanding performances through the years . In 1958 , the mile was the highlight of the meet , with SA record holder Harold Clark in the field . Clark ’ s intention was to surpass his own national record – 4:05.4 , run in Durban in May that year – and he succeeded when he sped away from his rivals to break the tape in 4:04.9 . This record was to stand for almost six years , until De Villiers Lamprecht famously recorded South Africa ’ s first ‘ dream mile ’ in 1964 .

TOP 10 STATS

Record-holder Michael Hodgson had run 4:04.5 and 4:04.9 in the USA , but in those days performances in overseas meetings were not recognised as SA Records .

The second record came in December 1982 , at the Vernon Barnes Memorial Meeting in Port Elizabeth , run by Johan Fourie , who achieved the first of his four SA Records in the mile with an outstanding 3:53.29 – more than four tenths of a second faster than Sydney Maree ’ s previous mark . Over the next five years , Fourie would lower the record to 3:50.82 , and his 1987 time would stand as a national record for more than 27 years !

Harold Clark

Charles Hefferon

Clark had actually run 4:04.5 in Kimberley just six days before the Paarl meet , but this was never recognised as a national record . Also , earlier in the year , SA Junior

Johan Fourie

INTERNATIONAL SNIPPET

The 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne , Australia remain the only Games ever held in December , and they were also the first held in the Southern Hemisphere . On this particular day , the marathon was run in extremely hot conditions , and only got under way after a false start ! The race notably pitted 1952 Helsinki Games defending marathon champion Emil Zatopek ( Czechoslovakia ) against Alain Mimoun ( France ).

general feeling was that it would be the same again . However , Zatopek , winner of three gold medals in Helsinki ( 5000m , 10,000m and marathon ) was not at his best following an illness , and after the first 10km he was out of contention . Mimoun took the gold medal in 2:25:00 , with Franjo Mihalic ( Yugoslavia ) second in 2:26:32 . Zatopek finished sixth in 2:29:34 , while South Africa ’ s Mercer Davies was 14th in 2:39:48 .

of supporting twins ! Only after the race was he told that there was only one baby .

The Frenchman , who was born in Algeria and was running his first marathon , had won the World Crosscountry title four times , including earlier in 1956 , but he had finished second to Zatopek in five major championships between 1948 and 1952 , and the

It is said that Mimoun received a written message the evening before the race that his wife had delivered their child , but the letter ‘ s ’ was added by mistake to the word enfant and Mimoun ran the marathon wondering how he would meet the financial demands

Alain Mimoun

South African Road List Leaders for 2024 ( As at 9 December 2024 )

This section lists the best South African performances for 2024 in one of the officially recognised road racing distances . This month we look at the 10km across the various age categories .

MEN ’ S 10KM WOMEN ’ S 10KM

About the Author

These stats and results are drawn from the weekly Distance Running Results mailer compiled by internationally acclaimed athletics statistician Riël Hauman , who has more than 50 years ’ experience as a journalist , author , publisher , commentator , pundit , administrator , event organiser , coach , team manager and runner in South African athletics , road running and cross country . He is also a former editor of the South African Athletics Annual , and author of two books , Hardloop en Lééf and Century of the Marathon 1896-1996 . To subscribe to his weekly newsletter , send him a mail at rielh @ mweb . co . za .

KEY | A – Aided course , e . g . point-to-point , and therefore not record-legal .

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