TRAIL
Strength in Numbers
Interestingly , milers often push each other to greater heights in competitive races , and as mentioned , the first race with two SA Dream Miles was in 1974 . The first with three sub-fours was in 1977 , when Bonzet clocked his second and pulled Danie Goosen and Clive Dale to their first , making it the first race with two debut SA Dream Milers . That 1979 race featuring Maree and Fourie also saw Bonzet and Louis Liebenberg go sub-four , making it the first race in SA with four Dream Miles .
Fanie van Zijl
go on to set a total of three SA Records for the mile , with the last one coming in 1970 , and he also set SA Records at various other distances , up to the marathon ( in 1966 ), proving just what a running talent he was !
The country had to wait just over three years for its second sub-four , the 3:59.3 run by Fanie van Zijl in December 1967 , which made him the world ’ s 90th athlete to break through four minutes , and he would also set three SA Records for the distance in his career . It was another four and a half years before Peter Kaal added the third sub-four in May 1972 , clocking 3:59.9 in the USA and becoming the world ’ s 147th sub-four miler – ironically , on the same night that that Van Zijl set his third SA Record ( 3:56.0 ) in a different race in the USA .
It was during this period that the term “ Dream Mile ” was first used . In May 1971 , in the build-up to the mile dual between Americans Jim Ryan and Marty Liquori in Philadelphia . Ryan , who in 1965 had become the first high school athlete to run a sub-four mile , was the favourite , but Liquori took the win in 3:54.6 . That result is long forgotten now , but the name Dream Mile has become commonly used for any sub-four performance , or performer .
Joining the Party
The fourth South African to run a Dream Mile was Hendrik Smit ( 3:59.8 ) in April 1974 , in a race in Port Elizabeth won by Van Zijl , making it the first time Two South Africans had clocked a sub-four in the same race . Johnny Halberstadt ( 3:59.9 ) joined them in May 1974 , and he would go on to run a marathon best of 2:11:46 , win the Two Oceans Marathon and finish as runner-up in the Comrades Marathon , making him one of the most versatile athletes ever produced by South Africa .
Johnny Halberstadt
The next South African Dream Miler was Danie Malan , who clocked 3:56.7 in February 1975 , just under two years after he had set a World Record for the 1000m event in Germany . Malan ’ s time was just 0.7 seconds slower than Van Zijl ’ s then SA Record , but that mark stood for only nine days longer , as Malan ran a 3:54.6 in Stellenbosch , with Ewald Bonzet joining the subfour fraternity in the same race ( the second time two SA athletes run Dream miles in the same race ).
The eighth South African to do it was Sydney Maree , who clocked 3:57.9 in Port Elizabeth in December 1976 , in his first ever mile race . He was the first athlete of colour in SA to clock a Dream Mile , as well as the first to be crowned SA Athlete of the Year , and he went on to set a new SA Record of 3:53.7 in May 1979 – his sixth Dream Mile – before heading to study and compete in the USA . He subsequently obtained US citizenship , so his faster times of 3:52.44 , 3:51.81 , 3:48.83 , all run in 1981 , are not counted as SA Records , but he remains the fastest miler ever produced by this country , with 17 Dream Miles to his name .
In that same race in 1979 that saw Maree set his SA Record , he was followed over the line by the country ’ s 13th Dream Miler , Johan Fourie ( 3:56.3 ), who would go on to become SA ’ s most acclaimed miler . He clocked a total of 53 sub-four miles in his career , over a time span of 15 years and 39 days between his first and last Dream Miles , setting four SA Records in the process and lowering the national mark to 3:50.82 in March 1987 . Remarkably , he also managed to become the first athlete in the world to run two sub-fours in one hour , which he achieved at a meet in Stellenbosch in February 1987 .
Another four races producing with four Dream Miles followed from 1979 to 1984 , and then in December 1985 , a race in Port Elizabeth saw five sub-fours for the first time in SA , with Fourie , Mathews Temane and Deon Brummer being joined in the sub-four club
Danie Malan
Sydney Maree
Marty Liquori beats Jim Ryan in the Dream Mile
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