By the Running Mann
C o l u m n
THE RUNNING MANN
Rissik Street , 1946 , and 18 runners start the first Jackie Gibson Marathon , including eventual winner Wally Hayward
What ’ s in a Name ?
By the Running Mann
While I enjoyed the inaugural running of the Johannesburg City Marathon , I cannot help feeling that the demise of its predecessor on the road running calendar could have been handled differently . This is my eulogy to the Jackie Gibson Marathon .
When I was at school , the Matrics liked to roll marbles at their final assembly . The schoolboys all thought this was great fun , but the teachers – and the deputy head in particular – not so much . I did not think that the deputy head ’ s face , who suffered from chronic alcoholism and was nicknamed “ bottles ,” could go any redder , but the sound of a single marble rolling down the Memorial Hall floor was the trigger that would turn him a darker shade of purple than Barney the Dinosaur after a long day in the sun .
The problem was one of perspective . The Memorial Hall was named to honour Rondebosch Old Boys who had died in World War I and II , and this had special commemorative significance to the deputy head , but to the schoolboys , it was just the place where we went for assembly , and to watch the odd school play . I think the same logic applies in the difference of opinions with the Jackie Gibson Marathon being replaced by the inaugural Johannesburg City Marathon . It ’ s an argument of old school tradition versus next generation enthusiasm , but perhaps the questions we need to answer first are , who was Jackie Gibson , and why should anyone care that the oldest marathon in the country , which was named after him , disappeared unceremoniously in 2024 ?
Jackie ’ s pronouns , hence I saw one comment on social media bemoaning the loss of “ the only race named after a female runner .”)
The Man Behind the Name
Jackie Gibson was born in 1914 and became a well-known cross-country athlete . He joined Johannesburg Harriers in the early 1930s and competed in his first marathon at the 1935 South African Marathon Championships , which he won , in the same year that he also won the SA 10-mile title . He would go on to win the SA Marathon title again in 1937 and 1939 , and the 6-mile national title in 1940 ( with a new SA Record of 31:37 ). Gibson also finished second to Johannes Coleman twice at the SA Marathon Champs , in 1936 and 1940 , in what was the great running rivalry of the day .
The 1936 SA Marathon doubled as the SA Olympic Trials Marathon , with Gibson narrowly beaten by Coleman , and both were selected to represent South Africa at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin , where Gibson finished eighth in the marathon ( Coleman finished sixth ). Two years later , he managed a third place and bronze medal in the marathon at the Empire Games ( today ’ s Commonwealth Games ) in Sydney , where Coleman won the gold medal . Gibson also finished sixth in the 6-mile race in Sydney .
Getting to Know Jackie
When I first started running in the early 2000s , I remember more experienced runners talking about the “ Jackie ,” and when doing so , they normally got a contemplative , distant look in their eyes , took a deep breath , and then winced , saying something like , “ If you want to run a tough marathon , run the Jackie .” ( There would normally be at least two or three swear words in this sentence , which I have left out … because my mother reads this blog .)
As for me , I was still blissfully naïve – young , dumb and full of run – and being a Capetonian , still relatively new to the minefields of Gauteng . I also remember being confused between the Jackie Gibson and the Jackie Meckler ( then a double-lap 50km race ). I actually had no idea who either of these men were until a general knowledge quiz question that asked , “ Name three of the men who ’ ve won the Comrades Marathon five times or more ” had Jackie Meckler as one of the answers . ( The other possible answers were Bruce Fordyce , Arthur Newton , Hardy Ballington and Wally Hayward .)
However , the legacy of Jackie Gibson remained a mystery to me , and I started this blog in 2017 , having a few “ Jackies ” under my belt already , I was still oblivious . It was only when I ran a fourth Jackie Gibson in 2018 that I wrote a detailed race report which included an investigation into Jackie Gibson the man . I ’ ve included this section verbatim below . ( I suspect that very few people reading this article will know who Jackie Gibson was , either . In fact , some people don ’ t even know
His greatest run was at the SA Marathon Championships in Bloemfontein in 1937 , which Gibson won in 2:30:45 to set a new South African and Empire Record , which proved to be the second-fastest time run in the world that year , and was just a few minutes outside the then official World Record , 2:26:42 , run by Korea ’ s Sohn Kee-chung in 1935 . ( Sidenote : From 1910 to 1945 , Korea was under Japanese occupation , so Kee-chung competed under the Japanese name Kitei Son , and won the 1936 Olympic Marathon under that name and flag . In the 1930s , it was Korean and Japanese runners trading world bests .)
During World War 2 , Gibson was an observer-navigator in the South African Air Force , and sadly , he died in 1944 ( at the age of 30 ) after a plane crash on a
Jackie Gibson ( right ) racing alongside Johannes Coleman at the 1938 Empire Games Marathon in Sydney
Images : Stuart Mann & courtesy Johannesburg Harriers , Wikimedia
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