powered by
BNC HISTORY
Blues
PIONEERING
The interesting stories behind the first men and women to earn Blue Numbers at the Totalsports Two Oceans Marathon require a‘ trip down memory lane’ to the late 70s and early 80s. – BY SEAN FALCONER
In 1979, the organisers of the Two Oceans Marathon decided to celebrate the 10th edition of the race by awarding permanent numbers to all runners who achieved 10 finishes. This was to reward these runners for their dedication to the event, which had first been run in 1970 as the Celtic 35 Mile Road Race, and it was also decided that runners who won the Ultra Marathon three times, or earned five gold medals, would also qualify for a permanent number.
These numbers would be allocated in order of runners meeting the qualifying criteria, and in that 1979 race, there were a number of runners who stood a chance of crossing the line ahead of their‘ rivals’ and claiming the coveted Permanent Number 1. At that stage, there were three athletes with two wins to their names – Don Hartley( 1972 and 1973), Derek Preiss( 1974 and 1975) and Brian Chamberlain( 1977 and 1978) – and would earn Permanent Number 1 if they won again in 1979, but they were either not running, or were unlikely to win that year, and no runner at that stage had more than three gold medals.
Race to be First
Therefore, great excitement built up around the only two runners who had completed every
Two Oceans Marathon since the first race in 1970, Hugh Amoore and PJ Sullivan. Even the newspapers covered the story about who would likely get the coveted Number 1. Both had solid running credentials, with Amoore having earned a gold medal for finishing fifth in 1971, whereas Sullivan had finished in the top 10 three times in the first four races, and had been running faster times than Amoore in more recent years.
On the day, however, it was Amoore that prevailed, crossing the line in 3:51:42, while Sullivan finished in 3:57:18, and that saw them awarded permanent numbers 1 and 2 respectively. Interestingly, when those first permanent numbers were awarded in 1979, they were silver, but this was later changed to blue, and thus the Blue Number Club( BNC) was established.
Amoore went on to run a further three Two Oceans Marathons, whereas Sullivan went on to finish 30. He would likely have been the first to reach 30, and earn the first triple laurel‘ Triple Blue’ permanent number, but he broke his ankle shortly before the 1998 race, while playing netball with the children at the school where he was principal. He ended up missing the 1998 and 1999 races, belatedly reaching 30 medals in 2001. Meanwhile, Noel Stamper and Jorrie Jordaan overtook him, with both having run their first Two Oceans in 1971, and they became the first two Triple Blues in 2000. Jordaan eventually ended on 31 medals, while Stamper went to become the first runner to earn 40 medals, in 2010, and finished on 41 a year later.
First Female Blues
Remarkably, another Blue Number race to be first occurred in 1985, when the first women became eligible to earn Blue Numbers. The first five editions of the race, from 1970 to 1974, had featured only white male entrants due to the country’ s Apartheid policies and the fact that women were not considered strong enough to run such distances. In 1975, however, the Two Oceans organisers successfully petitioned both the national government and athletics officialdom to allow the race to be opened to all entrants, and by 1985, two of the earliest pioneers of women’ s ultra running were on the verge of Blue Number status, Beverley Malan and Marie-Jeanne Duyvejonck.
Interestingly, both were two-time winners – Duyvejonck had claimed the women’ s title in 1976 and 1977, while Malan had won the race in 1982 and 1983, also becoming the first women to break four hours for the 56km route. After missing the 1984 edition, Malan was very much in contention to win the race again in 1985, whereas Duyvejonck now had nine medals to her name, but was no longer considered a top contender.
On the day, Malan did indeed take line honours, in three different ways: She crossed the line in 4:01:09 as the first woman home, became the first three-time women’ s winner, and claimed the first women’ s permanent number, being awarded Blue Number 37. Later that same day, Duyvejonck came home in 5:17:38 to become the second woman to earn a permanent number, and the first to do so by completing the Ultra Marathon 10 times, earning Blue Number 51.
Bev Malan became the first female Blue Number-holder in 1985, with her third win
Marie-Jeanne Duyvejonck earned the second female Blue Number, also in 1985
100 Totalsports Two Oceans Marathon powered by BYD | 2026
The first Two Oceans permanent numbers were silver, but were later changed to blue
The 1979 race for the first permanent numbers caught the attention of the local press
Images: Two Oceans Marathon