Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 148, Jan 2022 Jan 2022 | Page 9

colours of the USA , he became World Champion in Stuttgart in 2:13:57 , to beat another African-born athlete , Lucketz Swartbooi of Namibia .

30 January 1982

The Friendly City Marathon in Port Elizabeth , which has had several different names over the years , was first held in 1980 , then known as the Big Tree Marathon . On this day , in the third race , Eastern Cape runner Beverley Malan scored the first of three victories when she took the title in 2:52:33 , winning by almost 16 minutes from Jenny Saunders , who had won the first two races . Three months later , in the same city , Malan won the second SA Marathon for women in a PB of 2:47:44 . Later in the same year she would clock the fastest time by a South African woman in 1982 when she finished the New York City Marathon in 2:44:40 .

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 barefooted as usual , she smashed American Mary Decker ’ s 5000m World

Record with a time of 15:01.83 . Three 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 , eventually finishing seventh amid booing from the crowd .

17 January 1987

Monica Drögemöller scored the second of three consecutive victories in the 11th Bay to Bay 30km race in Cape Town , running an impressive 1:53:01 to break her own SA Record , set the previous year , by 39 seconds . This record still stands . All three of her wins were accomplished in under two hours , and no other woman has achieved this feat . Only seven other women have ever won the race in faster than two hours , in more than 40 editions of the race .

23 January 1999

The Red Hill Marathon in the Cape Peninsula is one of the toughest marathons around , and many a runner has come to grief on the hill for which it is named . On this day Donovan Wright ( 2:31:58 ) and Karen Bradford ( 3:10:29 ) won the tenth edition of the race , which was added to the older 36.2km race in 1984 ( the shorter event started in 1975 ). Both scored huge victories – Wright by exactly 14 minutes and Bradford by one second more than 11 minutes . It was Bradford ’ s fourth win , and she would go on to be the champion an unprecedented eight times .

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 .

This section lists the best South African performance for each of the age categories over the most popular road distances . Note that the categories are not closed , i . e . athletes can be included in younger age categories if their times qualify .

OPEN VETERANS ( 40 +) MASTERS ( 50 +)

10km 28:11 Precious Mashele Durban , 31 Oct 30:08 Peter Muthubi Durban , 31 Oct 34:32 George Mooi Durban , 31 Oct

GRANDMASTERS ( 60 +) GREAT GRANDMASTERS ( 70 +) JUNIORS

15km 1:08:56 Hannes Els Gqeberha , 2 Oct 1:08:56 Hannes Els Gqeberha , 2 Oct 54:37 Joshua Steytler Durban , 12 Dec

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