4 June 1972

The phenomenal Matie athlete Ferdie le Grange set three SA Marathon Records in the month of June . When he started his European tour in 1972 , he held the national record of 2:17:51.4 , set the previous year in the Republic Festival Marathon on a hilly Durbanville course . In the AAA Marathon on this day in Manchester , he faced a strong international field . West German Lutz Philipp won by one second from British star Ron Hill in 2:12:50 , with Le Grange finishing eighth in 2:16:19 to smash his SA record . A week later he went still faster in Brussels and bettered his record again , with a 2:15:34 . It was the first time ever that an athlete had run two sub-2:20 marathons within a week . A year later , on 3 June 1973 , again in Manchester , he finished fourth and improved the SA Record to 2:13:58 after leading until 30km .

Ferdie Le Grange

24 June 1972

Johnny Halberstadt is one of the most versatile athletes ever produced in South Africa , boasting a best mile time of 3:59.9 and a marathon of 2:11:46 . On this day at the Rose Festival meeting in Gresham , Oregon , he took aim at Fanie van Zijl ’ s SA Record of 13:48.4 for 5000 metres , set almost three months earlier . A furious sprint to hold off Americans Jeff Galloway and Sid Sink resulted in a new national mark of 13:44.0 , with Galloway finishing just two-tenths of a second behind the South African . Halberstadt ’ s performance came just three weeks after he had won the NCAA title for 10,000m in the colours of Oklahoma State University , setting another SA Record of 28:50.4 .

Johnny Halberstadt

24 June 1973

Danie Malan never set an official SA Record over 800 metres and could not compete at the 1972 Munich Olympics because of the international boycott against South Africa , but on this day , he showed the world the class of SA athletes by running a World Record of 2:16.0 for 1000m – fittingly in the Olympic Stadium in Munich . The race was held as part of the Munich Schools Championships , and fellow South African Joseph Leserwane set the pace for the first lap ( 55.0 ), Malan clocked 55.9 for the first lap , followed by a blistering 52.1 for the second , before finishing with 28.0 for the last 200m . Malan ’ s mark is still the only middle-distance ( 800-1500m ) World Record ever set by an athlete representing South Africa .

Danie Malan

27 June 1973

Marcello Fiasconaro , who was born in Cape Town , had equalled Dicky Broberg ’ s SA Record for 800m of 1:44.7 exactly two months earlier in Johannesburg , but on this day in Milan , he represented Italy in an international match against Czechoslovakia and demolished the field with a new World Record . Fiasconaro made his intentions clear from the start , blitzing the first lap in 51.2 , and though he slowed

down noticeably over the last half lap , he won in 1:43.7 . That broke the World Record of 1:44.3 , first set by Peter Snell in 1962 , and later equalled by Ralph Doubell ( at the 1968 Olympics ) and Dave Wottle ( 1972 ). At the 1974 European Championships in Rome , Fiasconaro was the overwhelming favourite , and started even faster ( 50.1 for the first lap ). He was still leading at 600m , but then took 28.7 for the last 200m and finished sixth . Injury prevented him from taking part in both the 1972 and 1976 Olympics .

Marcello Fiasconaro

2 June 1979

With the 1500m and 5000m being run on the same day at the NCAA Championships in Champaign , Illinois in the USA , South Africa ’ s Sydney Maree , the country ’ s fastest over the shorter distance in 1979 , chose to compete in the 5000m . Maree , a student at Villanova University , bided his time close to the front of the race until a lap to go . Taking the lead , he sped through “ the smoothest-looking 52.2 last lap imaginable ,” as Track & Field News put it , and crossed the line in a new SA Record of 13:20.63 , almost seven seconds faster than the national mark he had set two weeks earlier . The record would stand for almost 16 years .

Sydney Maree

Images : Action Photo SA , RogerRossing / DeutscheFotothek / Wikimedia & courtesy RunnerSpace , Two Oceans Marathon , Amazon , Brand Milano , Villanova University , Olympedia