- Bruce Fordyce
Bruce Fordyce (born December 3, 1955, Hong Kong) is a
South Africa n marathon andultramarathon athlete. He is best known for having won the South AfricanComrades Marathon a record nine times, of which eight wins were consecutive.Early life and education
Born in
Hong Kong , Fordyce’s family moved toJohannesburg when he was 13 years old. He completed his school career atWoodmead High School and subsequently attended theUniversity of the Witwatersrand , where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in1977 and his Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in1979 . During this time he was also a member of the university’sStudent Representative Council as well as a committee member of the Wits Athletic Club.Comrades Marathon
In 1977, when Fordyce first ran the
Comrades Marathon , he placed 43rd out of 1,678 entries. He gradually "rose through the ranks" and went on to win the Comrades for an unprecedented eight consecutive years between1981 and1988 ; he won it again in1990 . No other runner in the history of the Comrades had ever previously achieved this feat. Fordyce also held the record time for the "up" (Durban toPietermaritzburg ) run and his record for the "down" (Pietermaritzburg to Durban) run of 5:24:07 (set in1986 ), had stood for 21 years, and was finally broken in 2007 by Russia's Leonid Shvetsov.He has thus completed 25 Comrades Marathons, including the remarkable result of posting identical times in 1985 and 1987.
Political activism
His first victory was particularly brave and notable because he ran the race wearing a black armband to protest the 20th anniversary celebrations of the
apartheid republic attracting boos and even some rotten tomatoes from a largely white crowd.World record holder
Fordyce is the current world record holder over 50 miles - which he set during the
1983 London to Brighton ultramarathon – and he also holds the 50 mile record for the United States All Comers Race. He is the former world record holder over 100 km (set in 1989, the year he skipped the Comrades Marathon).He won the
London toBrighton ultramarathon 3 times in a row in the 1980's.Books, journalism and public speaking
In addition to having written two books about the Comrades Marathon, Fordyce is also currently (2004) a sports columnist for various
newspaper s and magazines. He is also a motivational speaker and the Chief Executive Officer of the South African Sports Trust.Other honours
In 2004, he was voted 64th in the Top 100 Great South Africans.
On the 21st of November 2007, he was given an honorary doctorate from the
University of the Witwatersrand .ee also
Comrades Marathon External links
* [http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/Pages/profilefull.aspx?IndID=2121 South African Who's Who] — Bruce Fordyce
* [http://www.southafrica.info/about/sport/greats/fordyce.htm SouthAfrica.info] — Fordyce's career
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