OPINION: How does Gerda Steyn compare to SA’s greatest ultra runners?

For many years there has been an ongoing debate about who has been the best ultra-distance runner South Africa has produced.

There aren’t many people we can consider. On the men’s side, it comes down to a choice between Wally Hayward and Bruce Fordyce. Among the women, Frith van der Merwe stood alone until Gerda Steyn emerged as a contender a few years ago.

Steyn, however, has now enjoyed an objectively better career than Van der Merwe. She has broken Van der Merwe’s Two Oceans record and her phenomenal ‘down’ run mark at Comrades, which some felt might never be broken.

She has also won the same number of Comrades titles as Van der Merwe (three), and while Van der Merwe won Two Oceans only once, Steyn has won it a record six times.

One can argue that knowledge of training programmes and diet have improved, and the shoes used these days are more suitable for producing fast times, but the title of greatest ultra-distance woman from South Africa now belongs to Steyn.

Comparing Steyn to Fordyce and Hayward

We can, however, still make comparisons between Hayward, Fordyce and Steyn in our search for the greatest ultra runner.

I’ve always felt the title belonged to Fordyce, who won Comrades an unprecedented nine times, secured victory in an unofficial 100km world championship and broke the 50-mile world record between 1981 and 1990.

However, Fordyce has always believed Hayward deserves the title. And he makes a good argument in the late Hayward’s defence.

Hayward was remarkable. He first won Comrades on debut in 1930, and he returned to the race 20 years later, winning it four more times from 1950.

Then, in 1988, he completed the race in nine hours, 44 minutes at the age of 79 (widely considered the best performance of his athletics career) and the following year he finished it again as an octogenarian.

Different paths and eras

Fordyce, Hayward and Steyn all followed different paths, and competed in different eras, so it’s difficult to make comparisons between the three.

But Steyn has done so well in recent years she has to be included in the conversation.

She’s already one of the greatest, and if she keeps breaking new ground, she could end her career one day as the best of them all.