In the last issue of the magazine , we featured the SA all-time top 10 marathon lists for women . This month , we look at the top 10 fastest male marathoners ever produced by this country , all of whom make up the SA ’ s tally of sub-2:09 runners , and all of their sub-2:09 times are included in the list .

TOP 10 FASTEST SA MALE MARATHONERS : 1 2:06:33 Gert Thys Tokyo , 14 Feb 1999

TOP 10 STATS

2 2:06:42 Stephen Mokoka Osaka , 26 Feb 2023

SA Record-holder Gert Thys appears three times in the top 10 fastest marathon times ever run by South Africans , with Stephen Mokoka , Hendrick Ramaala and Ian Syster each having two times in the top 10 . The remaining top 10 time belongs to 1996 Olympic Marathon Champion Josiah Thugwane , but it is his 1997 Fukuoka Marathon time that makes this list , not his somewhat slower , more tactical Atlanta win of the previous year .

Although he does not own the national record , Mokoka is the dominant athlete on the list , with eight performances out of the 28 sub-2:09 times ( and he has two more times under 2:10 ). Thys has six times on the list , and Ramaala five , and together , this top three of Thys , Mokoka and Ramaala , own 19 of the 28 sub-2:09 times . ( Ramaala has clocked three more sub-2:10 times , for a total of eight .) Fourth on the list is the late Ian Syster , who has two times on this list and one more time under 2:10 , while former World Champion and SA Champion Mark Plaatjes is tenth .

The fastest marathon times run on SA soil belong to Zithulele Sinqe ( 2:08:04 ) and Willie Mtolo ( 2:08:15 ), clocked in an epic SA Champs battle in Port Elizabeth in 1986 , but that route is considered an aided course , according to present-day World Athletics rules , so the fastest record-legal run on home soil belongs to Mokoka , with his 2:08:31 posted in the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon in 2018 .

Stephen Mokoka Key : A – Aided course , e . g . point-to-point , and therefore not record-legal .

When one talks of the early days of women ’ s marathoning , you refer to the period of a mere 50 or so years ago . One of the most astounding runs of that period , which served as an indication of what women could do , came on this day in Seaside , Oregon ( USA ), in the first Trail ’ s End Marathon . Diminutive 16-year-old schoolgirl Caroline Walker , who was only 1.53m tall and weighed a mere 40kg , negotiated the outand-back course without difficulty to set a new World Record of 3:02:53 . The previous mark , 3:07:26.2 , had been established by German Anni Pede-Erdkamp in 1967 . Walker ’ s record lasted just more than a year , until Elizabeth Bonner ran 3:01:42 , and later in 1971 became the first woman to break three hours when she clocked 2:55:22 in New York .

Caroline Walker

South African Road List Leaders for 2024 ( As at 5 February 2024 ) This section lists the best South African official performances for 2024 in each of the most popular official road distances .

MEN

WOMEN

42.2km 2:12:58 Stephen Mokoka Hong Kong , 21 Jan

KEY | A – Aided course , e . g . point-to-point , and therefore not record-legal .

42.2km 2:39:28 Cian Oldknow Benoni , 28 Jan 13