TRACK & FIELD
Early Days
Traditionally , the month of January is still part of what is considered the offseason in South African track and field , with most athletes still building up to the upcoming season . However , through the years there have still been some remarkable performances in the first month of the year . – BY RIËL HAUMAN , DEWALD STEYN & SEAN FALCONER
Hefferon Dominates Champs
2 January 1905
At the South African Championships , held in Cape Town , Charles Hefferon claimed his second 1-mile title in a new SA Record of 4:34.6 , as well as a second 4-mile title with a time of 22:09.4 . It was a sign of more to come , as later that year he lowered the SA Record for 4 miles 20:51.4 , and took another 40 seconds off in 1908 , while in 1909 he added new SA Records for 1-mile ( to 4:31.8 ), 2-mile ( 9:51.4 ) and 10 miles ( 59:48.6 ). In 1908 he also set the first SA Record for the marathon when he ran 2:56:06 as he finished second in the Olympic Marathon in London . ( He was actually third over the line , but firstplaced Dorando Pietri of Italy was famously disqualified after collapsing four times in the stadium and being helped over the finish line by officials .)
McKenzie ’ s Glorious Streak
25 January 1964
The redoubtable Ann McKenzie , who gave South African female middle distance running respectability in the sixties , set two national 800-metre records in January . She ran an unprecedented streak of 18 consecutive SA records , with the seventh record overall and second one in the month of January coming on this day in Benoni . She clocked 2:15.7 for 880 yards to break her 2:16.5 record set the previous December , and both times were also accepted as metric records . In the course of 1964 , she would improve this time on seven further occasions , with five of them recognised as SA records , and the final one ( 2:11.7 ) also giving her the SA title .
Ann McKenzie
Happy New Year for Olivier
26 January 1966
Only one SA record for 1500 metres has ever been set in January , and it came on this day when policeman Willie Olivier won a mile race in Paarl in 4:03.3 , which made him the then second-fastest South African of all time behind De Villiers Lamprecht ’ s dream mile of 1964 . Along the way , Olivier passed the metric mark in 3:45.8 to smash Lamprecht ’ s national record by exactly five seconds . Hendrik Beyleveld , 11 years younger than Olivier , was second in 4:07.3 and Trevor Jones third in 4:08.9 . Two years later , Olivier almost became the first SA athlete to run sub-2:20 for the marathon when he clocked 2:20:21 , and he finished his remarkable athletic career having set 19 SA Records and won 12 SA Champs titles ( 11 on the track and one in cross-country ).
Willie Olivier
Charles Hefferon
Ngobeni ’ s Glory Days
26 January 1985
On this day , Peter Ngobeni clocked 20.39 for 200m in Windhoek to set a new SA Record and beat the previous SA Record 20.63 run by Danie Zaayman in Pretoria in March 1978 . His mark only stood until the beginning of February 1986 , when Wessel Oosthuizen clocked 20.34 in Secunda , but it was a good year for Ngobeni , as he followed up his January SA Record effort by clocking 10.28 for 100m on 1 March in Potchefstroom , then the joint secondfastest ever time run by a South African , equalling Paul Nash ’ s time of 1968 and just one hundredth of a second outside Willie Smit ’ s 1979 SA Record 10.27 .
Barefoot Budd Beats World Best
5 January 1984
The wind was howling in Stellenbosch on the fifth day of the Olympic year , but 17-year-old Bloemfontein schoolgirl Zola Budd was on fire that night ( as were the stands of the Coetzenburg track , where a blaze later in the evening made spectators scurry to safety ). Running barefoot , as usual , she smashed American Mary Decker ’ s 5000m World Record with a time of 15:01.83 , taking more than six seconds off the mark . The following month she also set new SA Records for 2000m ( 5:44.4 ) and 3000m ( 8:37.5 ), but just two months later , Zola was a British citizen and another four months later she faced Decker in that infamous 3000m clash at the Los Angeles Olympic Games . After her famous coming together with Decker , which saw the American crash out of the race , Budd finished a distraught seventh , amid booing from Decker ’ s home crowd .
Zola Budd
Two Narrow Misses for Fourie
7 January 1985
It was a case of so close , but not close enough for Johan Fourie , as he narrowly missed out on two SA Records , both by just one second , in January 1985 . On 7 January , he ran a 7:44.00 for 3000m at a meet in Stellenbosch , finishing just one second outside Sydney Maree ’ s then 1979 SA Record of 7:43.00 . Then on 26 January , he clocked 2:17.00 for 1000m , only narrowly missing Danie Malan ’ s 1973 SA Record 2:16.00 . Later that same year , Fourie set an SA Record for another less frequently raced distance , 2000m , clocking 4:56.41 in Stellenbosch on 22 April , and at the SA Champs in Potchefstroom in April , he won both the 800m and 1500m titles . He would end his career with 16 SA Champs titles , but even more remarkable was his collection of 53 sub-four minute ‘ Dream Miles ’ between 1979 and 1994 , including two within one hour in February 1987 !
Johan Fourie
Images : Courtesy Johan Fourie , Zola Pieterse , Wikimedia
Much of the information for this article was first published either in statistician Riel Hauman ’ s weekly Distance Running Results ( DRR )
48 newsletter ISSUE 137 , JANUARY or Dewald 2021 Steyn / www ’ s History . modernathlete of South . co . African za Cross-Country , Middle- and Long-Distance Running and Walking . You can subscribe to DRR by mailing distancerr @ mweb . co . za , and you can find out more about Dewald ’ s books at dewalds @ worldonline . co . za .