Distance runners need more opportunities, says Elana Meyer

If South African distance runners are given more opportunities, local icon Elana Meyer believes they can reach the same lofty heights achieved by the country’s top athletes when she was at her best a few decades ago.

And Meyer, who earned the Olympic 10,000m silver medal in 1992 and won the world half-marathon title in 1994, is doing more than just talking about it. She’s taking action.

Her Endurocad academy joined forces this year with the Cape Milers Club to host three track meetings in Cape Town, all focussed on middle-distance events, and after being criticised for holding too many top-flight events at altitude, Athletics South Africa joined the party by assisting the organisers in securing World Athletics Continental Tour Challenger status for the series.

Great results

With distance runners given significant opportunities for the first time in years, the success of these efforts was evident over the last couple of weeks.

Some superb performances were produced at all three events. Ryan Mphahlele and Tshepo Tshite both qualified for this season’s World Athletics Championships over the 1,500m distance, while a host of athletes set personal bests.

“We have great potential on the track but the athletes need opportunities at sea level and they need plenty of them,” Meyer said.

“A lot of former athletes, like Hendrick Ramaala and Zola Budd (both coaching), are putting effort in to support the next generation, but athletes also need to be given enough chances to race if we want to see them performing well across the board.”

Aside from lifting the domestic standard on the track, Meyer felt regular middle-distance races at sea level would also improve the level of performances by South African athletes in international road races.

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Between 1992 and 2004, six South Africans won World Marathon Majors races and Josiah Thugwane won the Olympic marathon title in 1996. Since then, however, none of these performances have been replicated.

“I truly believe to be fast on the road you need to be fast on the track. That’s where the gap is,” said Meyer, who still holds multiple national records on the track and the road.

“Over the last decade there have been very few opportunities for distance runners on the track, and if we want to compete against the rest of the world we need to give our athletes enough opportunities to do that.”