Modern Athlete Magazine 175 December 2024 | Page 27

ROAD RUNNING stand for nearly three years . Laxton took the record back in 1984 – the third of her four national marks at this distance , and dipping under 2:40 for the first time , with Adelene Joubert and Annett Falkson also getting in on the record-setting act from 1985 to 1988 .

In 1989 the national women ’ s marathon record became part of the incredible Frith van der Merwe story . She is best known for winning the Comrades Marathon three times from 1988 to 1991 as well as the 1989 Two Oceans Marathon , but in that same period she broke the national marathon mark twice as well . In the build-up to the two big ultras in 1989 , she clocked 2:30:35 in Port Elizabeth that February , and nearly a year later to the day , at the 1990 SA Champs , she became the first SA woman to go under 2:30 when she set a new mark of 2:27:36 , again in Port Elizabeth .

The 1990s were dominated by two women as Elana Meyer and Colleen De Reuck competed on the world stage in prestigious big city marathons such as Boston , Chicago , Berlin and London , and while Meyer posted 2:25:15 in 1994 in Boston – then the fastest time ever run by a South African – it was not recognised as the SA Record due to the ‘ aided ’ designation of the overall downhill point-to-point Boston course . In fact , Meyer ’ s three best times from 1994 to 1997 were all run on the Boston course , so her 2:27:17 in Chicago in 1999 is officially recognised as her best time . The national record was instead taken by De Reuck in 1996 in Berlin , where she posted 2:26:35 , and this record would stand for a quarter of a century !

In April 2021 , after coming close in London in October 2020 with a 2:26:51 , Gerda Steyn finally took De Reuck ’ s record down when she clocked 2:25:28 in Italy . Then in December 2023 , in Valencia , Spain , she not only improved her national mark with a 2:24:03 , but also finally beat Meyer ’ s fastest time from 1994 , nearly 30 years after it had been run ! Less than a year later and the record fell to Xaba in Cape Town , shattering Steyn ’ s mark by a minute and 41 seconds .

The future of South African women ’ s marathoning is looking very promising at the moment , with a number of women posting times in the lower half of the 2:20s in the last few years , but until Steyn ’ s breakthrough in 2020-2021 , no local woman had been able to beat the times set by Van Der Merwe , Meyer and De Reuck way back in the 1990s . The country now has Xaba , Steyn , Cian Oldknow and Irvette van Zyl who have all gone faster than De Reuck ’ s national mark that stood for 25 years , with the first three having also gone faster than Meyer ’ s 1994 time .

While a large amount of focus in South African running is still placed on the two big ultra-marathons , due to their long history and the large role they play in the SA running scene , there is definitely more attention now on the women ’ s marathon mark . The men ’ s national record has stood since 1999 – Gert Thys ran 2:06:33 in Tokyo that year – and while Hendrick Ramaala came close in 2006 with his 2:06:55 in London , and Stephen Mokoka came even closer with a 2:06:42 in Osaka in 2023 , for now it is the country ’ s female marathoners who are rewriting the record books .

The fully updated list of the top 40 leading performances by South African women in the marathon distance features 11 athletes . On the list below , the lines in bold denote the fastest legal time set by each of these athletes , and their additional times are denoted with a number in brackets after the athlete ’ s name . Times run on ‘ aided ’ courses , which are therefore not record-legal , have the letter A after the time . The athlete with the most times on this list is Gerda Steyn , with eight times , followed by Elana Meyer and Colleen De Reuck with seven each . However , if you go down to the top 50 times , Meyer climbs to 10 performances on the list , to the nine each by Steyn and De Reuck .

The statistics in this article were kindly supplied by renowned SA statistician Riël Hauman .

Gerda Steyn ’ s breakthrough SA Record in 2021 finally beat De 27 Reuck ’ s 25-year-old mark