STATS & FACTS
by RIËL HAUMAN
Stats & Facts
Tanith ’ s Unique Record
Tanith Maxwell is unique among South African marathoners . In fact , she is unique among all runners who have run the Comrades Marathon , including illustrious names such as Wally Hayward , Johannes Coleman and Vladimir Kotov . But let us start at the beginning !
A
recent enquiry about runners who won a gold medal in the Comrades and also ran the Olympic Marathon led to some fascinating digging and interesting e-mail conversations with a few stats friends . In the end , with some extra help from Rowyn James and Andrew Bosch , I came up with 15 runners who have achieved this feat .
But then the searching went further , and out of the 15 , it turned out that only four have won a Comrades gold , run the Olympic Marathon and competed in the World Championships : Alberto Salazar , Mike Fokoroni , Colleen de Reuck ( the only one with three Olympic marathons ) and Maxwell . And only one of them – and that is what makes Maxwell unique – has also added the Commonwealth Games .
A last interesting point : Only one of the runners – Mercer Davies in 1956 – ran the Olympic Marathon in the same year that he won a Comrades gold ( on 1 December and 31 May , respectively ). It should be borne in mind that there were no World Championships before 1983 , and that both Johannes Coleman and Sydney Luyt , who ran at the Olympics and Commonwealth Games , did not have the opportunity to compete in that meeting .
Here is the list of 15 athletes , featuring nine South Africans , with the years listed when they earned Comrades gold medals as well as their Olympic marathon runs ( with finishing position in brackets ), all arranged in chronological order of the Olympic races :
Tanith Maxwell
Wally Haywrd
ATHLETE COMRADES GOLDS OLYMPIC MARATHONS
1 . Harry Phillips 1921 , ‘ 22 , ‘ 25 , ‘ 26 1924 ( 19 ) 2 . Johannes Coleman 1935 , ' 37 , ' 39 1936 ( 6 ), 1948 ( 4 ) 3 . Sydney Luyt 1953 1948 ( 6 ), 1952 ( 11 ) 4 . Wally Hayward 1930 , ' 50 , ' 51 , ' 53 , ' 54 1952 ( 10 ) 5 . Mercer Davies 1953 , ' 55 , ’ 56 , ' 57 , ' 62 , ' 63 , ' 65 1956 ( 14 ) 6 . Vladimir Kotov ( Belarus ) 2000 , ’ 01 , ‘ 02 , ' 04 , ’ 05 , ' 06 , ' 08 1980 ( 4 ) 7 . Gabashane Rakabaele ( Lesotho ) 1976 , ' 77 1980 ( 36 ), 1984 ( 61 ) 8 . Alberto Salazar ( USA ) 1994 1984 ( 15 ) 9 . Zithulele Sinqe 1997 1992 ( DNF ) 10 . Colleen de Reuck ( RSA / USA ) 2016 , ' 17 1992 ( 9 ), 2000 ( 31 ), 2004 ( 39 ) 11 . Leonid Shvetsov ( Russia ) 2001 , ' 07 , ’ 08 , ' 09 , ‘ 12 1996 ( 66 ), 2004 ( 13 ) 12 . Mike Fokoroni ( Zimbabwe ) 2013 , ' 16 2008 ( 11 ) 13 . Tanith Maxwell 2018 2012 ( 78 ) 14 . Caitriona Jennings ( Republic of Ireland ) 2019 2012 ( 103 ) 15 . Gerda Steyn 2017 , ’ 18 , ' 19 2021 ( 15 )
About the Author
These stats 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 .
Images : Roger Sedres / Image SA & courtesy Wally Hayward Collection
10 ISSUE 146 NOVEMBER 2021 | www . modernathlete . co . za