Sporting Action - The Greatest?

Gerda Steyn's Great Run To The Top

By Koketso Mamabolo

One day a 24-year-old quantity surveyor from the Free State laced up her takkies to join a running a club in Dubai. She was hoping to meet people and make friends. Little did Gerda Steyn know that she had written the first letter of her name into South African road running history. That was in 2014. She came 14th in her first Comrades, only two years after she first fell in love with running. Four years later she burst onto the scene, winning the Two Oceans marathon.

“No-one can touch her,” says fellow competitor, friend and Hollywood Athletic Club teammate, Carla Molinaro, in the SuperSport documentary, Breaking records, the Gerda Steyn story. Carla calls Gerda the best road ultra runner in the world and it’s easy to tell why: She holds both the Comrades and the Two Oceans marathon records and can’t stop winning.

The former is the oldest and largest ultramarathon in the world. A grueling 89km test of the limits of human ability. The latter, a more modest 56km, is made only less daunting by the beautiful scenery which sets the backdrop for thousands of runners, from the elite like Carla and Gerda, to the people ticking things off their bucket lists or testing their own limits.

She does both with what looks like relative ease, always ready to share a smile with the spectators who cheer her on as she glides along winding rounds and punishing hills. “She is phenomenal, I don’t even know how many she’s won,” says Carla. Three Comrades and six consecutive Two Oceans marathons, to be exact.

She has a special mix of brains, speed and endurance, says Bruce Fordyce, road running legend and nine-time Comrades winner, who almost cried when congratulating her after her Comrades win in 2024, when she broke the women’s record. After a disappointing showing in the standard marathon (42.2km) at the Paris Olympics, her 2025 Two Oceans win was a reminder of how much better she is over the longer distances.

She ran the third fastest time ever by a woman in the race, 3:29:11, after running the second fastest time in 2023 (3:29:06) and the fastest time of 3:26:54 in 2024. That level of dominance is almost unheard of, in whatever sport. She’s the only woman to run the Two Oceans in under three and a half hours, and she’s done it four times.

To put that in context, the first female entrant, who participated in 1974 Two Oceans marathon, Theresa Stadler, completed the race in 07:33:00. The next year, Ulla Paul was the first woman to run within the six-hour limit (5:24:51). It would take another four years for the five-hour barrier to be broken by Janet Bailey (4:34:28), before Beverly Malan opened the gates of the four-hour barrier when she finished in 3:59:08 in 1985. Beverly would go on to become the first woman to win the race three times, the same year that Siphiwe Gqele, a miner, became the first man to achieve the incredible feat.

Gerda has gone on to eclipse them all, including four-time winner Monica Drögemöller, and Angelina Sephooa who won the race three times in three attempts. The 2024 season, the main focus of her documentary, was a year many would dream of. Besides the Two Oceans and Comrades recordbreaking efforts, and her second appearance at the Olympics, she also set the course records at the Om Die Dam marathon in Hartebeesport and at the Vaal Marathon, where organisers and fellow runners treated her to a birthday celebration.

She enjoys the social connection. She’s made the friends she was looking for eleven years agomany of them - and become a popular icon in the South African running community, which values camaraderie and the social side of sport as much as the competitive element of racing. “I think what makes Gerda so special is the way she connects with people,” says road running journalist Mosibodi Whitehead in the hour and a half-long documentary.

She’s an elite runner, but she’s also the people’s runner. Like all the great South African athletes she carries with her collectivist values and a sense of responsibility, a representative of her country.

“I enjoy that people find that they can relate to me. That is something that is special to me. I wouldn’t want it any other way,” says Gerda, flashing the smile that running fans all over the country have become accustomed to. The greatest? The documentary producers posed the question to the interviewees and they all seemed to agree on one thing: If she’s not already a legend, the greatest Comrades and Two Oceans runner South Africa has seen, then she’s on the way.

Despite the late start, the 35-yearold queen of the road seems to be treating her career like she treats her race strategy: A slow, steady start that builds into a searing pace. “No-one can touch her.” After she crossed the line at this year’s Two Oceans, it took eight minutes and forty seconds for the next woman to finish. Not a bad lead for someone who just wanted to make friends.

What's On In May

Football

Soweto Derby: Kaizer Chiefs vs Orlando Pirates - 10 May

El Clasico: Barcelona vs Real Madrid -11 May

CAF Confederations Cup:

• Semi-Final 1 Winner vs Semi-Final 2 Winner: Leg 1 of 2 - 17 May

• Semi-Final 1 Winner vs Semi-Final 2Winner: Leg 2 of 2 - 25 May

UEFA Europa League: Semi-Final 1 Winner Vs Semi-Final 2 Winner - 21 May

CAF Champions League: Semi-Final 1 Winner vs Semi-Final 2 Winner - 24 May

UEFA Champions League: Semi-Final 1 Winner vs Semi-Final 2 Winner - 31 May

Cricket

Sri Lanka Women’s Tri-Series 2024/25: Match 3

• Sri Lanka Women vs Proteas Women - 2 May

Sri Lanka Women’s Tri-Series 2024/25: Match 5

• Proteas Women vs India Women - 7 May

Sri Lanka Women’s Tri-Series 2024/25: Match 6

• Sri Lanka Women vs Proteas Women - 9 May

Sri Lanka Women’s Tri-Series 2024/25: Final

• TBC vs TBC 11 May

Golf

THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson: 1-5 May

Turkish Airlines Open: 8-11 May

Truist Championship: 8-12 May

Myrtle Beach Classic: 8-12 May

PGA Championship: 15-19 May

Soudal Open: 22-25 May

Charles Schwab Challenge: 22-26 May

Austrian Alpine Open: 29 May - 1 June

The Memorial Tournament: 29 May - 2 June