AFTER making history in this year’s Comrades Marathon, female winner Gerda Steyn has donated her winning shoes to the Comrades Marathon House Museum.
Delaine Cools, a communications manager at the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA), said the shoes may be worth millions, and they will be cherished for many years to come. “We are ecstatic after the addition of Gerda Steyn’s winning shoes, which is the latest valuable item now at the Comrades Marathon House Museum in Scottsville. Steyn’s running shoes are now part of the history-making items in our collection,” she says.
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Cools thanked the athlete for willingly answering their request. She also indicated that there were a couple of good reasons to ask the South African road-running heroine to donate her shoes to the CMA Museum. “Her breaking the best time on the Up Run again this year is no mean feat. Hence, we requested that she donate her winning shoes to the Comrades Museum. Thank you, Gerda, for entrusting them to our care, so that our Comrades Marathon athletes, supporters and fans can enjoy seeing them on display for years to come,” she added.
The manager says she still cannot believe that Gerda’s winning shoes are in their museum. She said, “This is amazing, and we just cannot believe that Gerda Steyn’s winning running shoes are right here. Steyn is a Comrades Marathon champion with a number of achievements under her belt. In 2019, she became the first woman to achieve a sub-six-hour run on the Up Run when she finished in 5:58:53,” she concludes.
In 2023, Steyn smashed Frith van der Merwe’s long-standing 1989 Down Run record of 5:54:43, setting a new best time record of 5:44:54. A few weeks ago, during the Comrades Marathon Up Run, she bettered her 2019 time when she finished the race in 5:49:46.
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