LIVING LEGEND
The SPAR Women’s Challenge
Joburg at Marks Park Sports
Club on Sunday October 6
will be a very special race
for one of South Africa’s
most successful athletes,
Sonja Laxton, who will
be running her 100 th SPAR
Women’s Challenge 10km
race. During that time, she
has notched up 79 victories
in all age categories except
the junior category – and that
is probably only because the
SPAR Women’s Challenge
did not exist when she was a
junior!
S
onja’s impressive running career now
spans more than 50 years, and one
of her greatest achievements was to
become the first athlete, male or female, to be
awarded national colours in all three branches
of athletics – track, cross country and road
running. In all, she collected 70 national titles,
across all three disciplines, and set 28 senior
national records over 1500m, the mile, 3000m
and 10,000m on the track, as well as in the half
and full marathon distances on the road.
“I started running in high school in Port
Elizabeth, but only in the second year, because
in my first year, I was too shy to run,” says
Sonja, whose unmarried surname was van Zyl.
“The next year, I did run for my house, but I
wasn’t fast enough to run for the school in my
own age group, so I ran under-19, because
the older girls had got a bit fat and lazy. It was
only the next year that I started running in my
proper age group.”
Running the Koppies
After high school, Sonja went to Wits
University, where she achieved a Masters
degree in Biochemistry. “It was while I was
at Wits that I met coach Jan Barnard, who
changed my life,” she says. Barnard lived in
Florida Hills and Sonja and her fellow athletes
used to train by running in the koppies around
Florida. “It was hard work, but we loved it.
He started me running longer distances, and
I started to win. The first time I won at 800
metres, my time was 2.22.2 – I will always
remember that. I then went to the SA Champs
in Port Elizabeth and won the 800-metre title.”
Sonja travelled to Europe several times, but
her international career was cut short by the
international sports boycott imposed on South
Africa from 1976, which husband Ian, who is
the coordinator of the SPAR Grand Prix, says
cost her what could have been a incredible
international career. “Ian says I would have
qualified for five Olympic Games, in different
events, but I had so much fun from my running
that I can’t be too sad about what I missed.
I made many friends that I am still in contact
with today, because in those days, you used to
stay with families when you raced overseas.”
In 1977, Sonja started road running and the
following year she won her debut marathon,
the Golden Reef Marathon, run from midtown
Johannesburg to Benoni. “I was running with
some of my RAC friends, including Bernard
Rose, and I was desperate to go to the loo.
They told me to just nip down an alley, but I
couldn’t do that, so when I saw a public toilet,
I ducked in there. They were timing me – they
said I took 45 seconds, and that included
washing my hands – but I won the marathon
and broke the South African women’s record.
What was even better was that my time was
exactly the same as the time Ian did for his first
marathon. I would never have lived it down if
his time had been better!”
Sonja will be running
her 100 th SPAR Women’s
Challenge 10km race in
Joburg
Sonja went on to complete 23 marathons,
including two New York Marathons, but then
decided to stick to the shorter distances. “I
don’t do anything beyond a half marathon
anymore,” she says. When asked about
favourite running memories, she says running in
the same 5000m race as Zola Budd, when the
17-year-old barefoot prodigy broke the World
Record in Stellenbosch in 1984 stands out. “It
was a windy day and conditions weren’t great,
but Coetzenberg Stadium was packed, and you
could feel something special was happening.
We all lost sight of Zola, and then she lapped
me. I tried to keep up with her as she passed
me, but just couldn’t. The crowd was going
mad, I was watching her time, and I had to
remind myself that I still had a race to run.
Although Zola lapped me, I still came second!”
Amazing Races
Sonja is a great fan of the SPAR races, which
are run in six cities around the country.
“Women’s races are a lot of fun. The winner
has the satisfaction of being the first across
the finishing line, instead of coming home
after a bunch of men, and there is always a
very good vibe at the SPAR races. They really
are something to look forward to, and I plan
my year’s training around the SPAR Women’s
Challenge series,” she says. “I think they have
done a lot to get women involved in running.
Women who might have been a bit wary of
running in a mixed race feel more comfortable
about running in a women only race.”
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