STATS & FACTS
by RIËL HAUMAN
Stats & Facts
Marching on This Month Taking a look back through the annals of the history of SA athletics and road running , these are a few of the standout performances in the month of March .
10 March 1965
On this day in Germiston Cornelius “ Sonny ” van Antwerp ran one of the best races of his career when , despite the altitude , he became the first South African to dip below 50 minutes for 10 miles and cover more than 12 miles in an hour . Over 10 miles , his 49:55.6 smashed Jan Barnard ’ s 10-year-old record by almost two minutes , and in the hour run , his distance of 12 miles 37 yards ( 19.346km ) improved on Div Lamprecht ’ s record set that January in Cape Town . Five weeks later Van Antwerp beat Kiwi Neville Scott for the SA 6-mile title in Potchefstroom .
De Villiers Lamprecht
10 March 1973
Only one South African record in the women ’ s 3000 metres has ever been set in March . It was on this day in Port Elizabeth that Sonja van Zyl came up with a phenomenal performance when she covered the distance in 9:28.0 to break her own previous mark , set on the same track about three weeks before , by 15.5
3 March 1967
Best remembered as the first South African to run a sub-4-minute mile , on 13 November 1964 , De Villiers Lamprecht also set a national marathon record in 1966 when he clocked 2:20:43 . Both performances came in Stellenbosch . What is less well known is that the bespectacled Matie was also the first SA
ALL-TIME BEST MEN ’ S 25KM IN SA
Nkosikhona Mhlakwana ’ s 1:15:26 in the Train-Camp PDAC 25km in KwaZulu-Natal on the last week of January is the third-fastest time ever by a South African for this ( seldom raced ) distance , albeit on an aided course . In third place , Pakiso Mthembu claimed the eighth spot on the all-time list . Interestingly , four of the top 10 times were run in the same race in Secunda in 1985 .
ALL-TIME 25 KM : TOP 10 MEN 1:15:02 Lusapho April Berlin , 9 May 10 1:15:08 Desmond Mokgobu Kolkata , 15 Dec 19 1:15:26a Nkosikhona Mhlakwana Pinetown , 30 Jan 22 1:15:31 Mark Plaatjes Grand Rapids , 11 May 91 1:15:42 Kenny Jacobs Secunda , 13 Apr 85 1:15:43 Jacob Mokoena Secunda , 13 Apr 85 1:15:50 Kevin Shaw Johannesburg , 26 Aug 78 1:15:55a Pakiso Mthembu Pinetown , 30 Jan 22 1:16:03 Charles Vilakazi Secunda , 13 Apr 85 1:16:29 Thompson Magawana Secunda , 13 Apr 85 31:51 Johannes ( 3 ) Port Elizabeth , 4 May 19
athlete to duck under 14 minutes for 5000 metres . This came – no surprise here – in Stellenbosch on this day when Lamprecht ran 13:53.3 . Less than a month later he won both the 3-mile and 6-mile titles at the SA Championships – the last time the championships were contested over the imperial distances . In 1970 , he won the 5000-metre title .
Nkosikhona Mhlakwana
Sonja van Zyl
Lusapho April
Images : MarathonPhotos . com & Courtesy Maties Athletics , Dewald Steyn , Two Oceans Marathon , HollywoodBets AC
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