In a class all of their own
Three amazing ultra marathon runners who hail from our city are Johan van Graan, Johan van der Merwe and Pieter Pretorius.
POLOKWANE – Three amazing ultra marathon runners who hail from our city are Johan van Graan, Johan van der Merwe and Pieter Pretorius.
Johan van Graan
• Van Graan is the first of the three runners to compete in a 100 miler (160,9 km) and also the first athlete in Polokwane to do so.
• He also became the eldest athlete at the age of 69 years to compete in the Savannah Mall 3-in-1 race, which he completed in 2:54 hours.
Johan van der Merwe
• So far he has won 10 standard 100 mile races since October 14, 2011.
• He has since completed four Washie, three Golden Reef, two Capital Classics and one Coaldust 100 races.
Pieter Pretorius
• He won the Hout is Goud Race, the Night 2 Light Race, the Coaldust 100 and the Elkana.
All three these super runners deserve their names in Polokwane athletics’s history books.
Read more about them in Review Weekend
