Harold Thompson

7 May 1932

The mile is the event with the most national records set in the fifth month , with six occurrences The first of these came on this day in Stellenbosch , when Harold Thompson ’ s 4:21.2 broke the previous mark of Danie Jacobs by 1.4 seconds . This came just more than a month after he had won the SA title in Durban in 4:24.4 ( he also won the 800m ), and he would win the mile title again in 1933 and 1934 . Interestingly , the next two May mile national records both came on the eighth day of the month , in 1937 and 1954 .

31 May 1954

Two South African marathon records have been set on 31 May . The first came on this day in Port Elizabeth , in the trial race for the Empire Games in Vancouver , Canada . Jan Barnard , who six weeks before had been comprehensively beaten by Jackie Mekler and Wally Hayward in the SA Marathon , turned the tables on them with a stunning result . His 2:25:31 shattered Jackie Gibson ’ s SA Record , which had stood since 1937 , by more than five minutes . Mekler was second in 2:28:57 ( also faster than the old record ). In Vancouver , Mekler won the silver medal and Barnard claimed the bronze medal .

Jan Barnard

31 May 1965

In the first few years of the Peninsula Marathon , the race was always run on Republic

Day , 31 May ( except for the first one , which was on 1 June ). On this day , in the second edition of the marathon , Willie Olivier scored a fairly easy victory by almost three minutes over defending champion Dave Wassung . Olivier ’ s 2:27:30 was almost identical to Wassung ’ s 2:27:28 the previous year . There were 17 finishers , all men , with South Africa ’ s first sub-4 minute miler , De Villiers Lamprecht , eighth in 2:49:54 . Although Lamprecht set a national marathon record of 2:20:42 the next year ( which was surpassed by Olivier ’ s 2:20:21 in the 1968 Peninsula Marathon , also on 31 May ), he never won Cape Town ’ s premier marathon .

Willie Olivier

7 May 1979

Sydney Maree ’ s best for the mile was 3:57.9 when he lined up in Stellenbosch on this night , while the SA Record stood at 3:54.6 , set by Danie Malan four years earlier on the same track . On this night , his rivals had no answer for Maree ’ s finishing speed , and he won easily in 3:53.7 for a new national mark . He was followed home by Johan Fourie in 3:56.3 and Louis Liebenberg in 3:58.1 , both also setting new PBs . Thirteen days later , Maree would also break the SA 5000m record , and his mile record stood for more than three years before Fourie surpassed it .

Sydney Maree

2 May 1981

The first SA Marathon Championships for women was held on this day in Durban , at a time when there were separate championships for men and women . In only her fourth marathon , Sonja Laxton won the title in 2:44:35 , beating Isavel Roche-Kelly by 47 seconds , with Beverley Malan third in 2:49:54 ( she won the second title a year later ). A little more than four months later , Roche-Kelly would claim Laxton ’ s SA Record with her 2:43:16 in Faure . Laxton only won one more SA Marathon , in 1993 , and her last SA Record was 2:35:44 in 1986 .

6 May 1988

The date of 6 May 1954 is indelibly etched in athletics history as the day when Roger Bannister ran the first four-minute mile , but the same date is also a significant one in South African road running . This was the occasion , 34 years later , of the first running of the Safari Half Marathon in Wellington ( now the Rhodes Quality Half Marathon ). Xolile Yawa , who three weeks earlier had won his fourth successive SA 10,000m title , scored an impressive victory in 1:03:06 , beating Matthews Temane by almost two minutes . About 10 weeks later , Yawa would win his second national half marathon title in 1:01:58 .

Xolile Yawa

Sonja Laxton

Images : Hoffie Hoffmeister / Athletics History , & courtesy Athletics History , Villanova University , United Press International / Wikimedia , Two Oceans Marathon