Bruce Fordyce

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Bruce Fordyce
Personal information
NationalitySouth African
Born (1955-12-03) 3 December 1955 (age 65)
Hong Kong
Alma materUniversity of the Witwatersrand
Sport
Sport
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Medal record
Bronze medal – third place Comrades Marathon 1979
Silver medal – second place Comrades Marathon 1980
Gold medal – first place Comrades Marathon 1981
Gold medal – first place Comrades Marathon 1982
Gold medal – first place Comrades Marathon 1983
Gold medal – first place Comrades Marathon 1984
Gold medal – first place Comrades Marathon 1985
Gold medal – first place Comrades Marathon 1986
Gold medal – first place Comrades Marathon 1987
Gold medal – first place Comrades Marathon 1988
Gold medal – first place Comrades Marathon 1990

Bruce Noel Stevenson Fordyce (born 3 December 1955 in Hong Kong) is a South African marathon and ultramarathon athlete. He is best known for having won the South African Comrades Marathon a record nine times, of which eight wins were consecutive. He also won the London to Brighton Ultramarathon three years in a row. He is the former world record holder over 50 miles and the former world record holder over 100 km.

Early life and education[]

Born in Hong Kong to Evan Noel and Nancy Ann (Née Stevenson), Fordyce moved with his family to Johannesburg when he was 13 years old.[1] He completed his school career at and subsequently attended the University of the Witwatersrand,[1] where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1977 and his Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in 1979. During this time he was also a member of the university's anti-apartheid Student Representative Council as well as a committee member of the Wits Athletic Club. He married Gillian Leigh (Née Bruce)

Comrades Marathon[]

In 1977, when Fordyce first ran the Comrades Marathon, he placed 43rd out of 1,678 entries. He placed 14th in 1978, 3rd in 1979, 2nd in 1980,[2] and was the winner for an unprecedented eight consecutive years from 1981 to 1988; he won it again in 1990.[1] No other runner in the history of the Comrades has achieved this feat. Fordyce also held the record time for the "up" run (Durban to Pietermaritzburg) and his record of 5:24:07 for the "down" run (Pietermaritzburg to Durban) stood for 21 years from 1986 until it was broken in 2007 by Russia's Leonid Shvetsov.

Bruce Fordyce's Comrades Marathon Results
Year Position Time Direction Medal
1977 43 06:45:00 Up Silver
1978 14 06:11:00 Down Silver
1979 3 05:51:15 Up Gold
1980 2 05:40:31 Down Gold
1981 1 05:37:28 Up Gold
1982 1 05:34:22 Down Gold
1983 1 05:30:12 Up Gold
1984 1 05:27:18 Down Gold
1985 1 05:37:01 Up Gold
1986 1 05:24:07 Down Gold
1987 1 05:37:01 Up Gold
1988 1 05:27:42 Up Gold
1990 1 05:40:25 Up Gold
1991 328 06:57:02 Down Silver
1994 19 06:01:54 Up Silver
1995 2232 08:42:48 Down Bronze
1996 329 06:59:30 Up Silver
2000 2691 08:41:11 Up Bill Rowan
2001 2790 08:50:52 Down Bill Rowan
2002 4252 09:48:46 Up Bronze
2003 2784 08:53:12 Down Bill Rowan
2004 3088 09:26:02 Up Bronze
2005 2311 08:45:20 Down Bill Rowan
2006 3596 09:41:11 Up Bronze
2007 3861 09:48:18 Down Bronze
2008 3710 10:07:33 Up Bronze
2009 3818 09:48:21 Down Bronze
2010 965 07:55:03 Down Bill Rowan
2011 488 07:30:31 Up Bill Rowan
2012 1099 08:06:10 Down Bill Rowan

He has thus completed 30 Comrades Marathons,[1] including the remarkable result of posting identical times in 1985 and 1987. In 2011 he aimed for a silver medal, but missed this by 31 seconds (finishing time of 7 hours 30 minutes 31 seconds).

London to Brighton Ultramarathon[]

Fordyce won the London to Brighton ultramarathon 3 years running from 1981 to 1983.[3][4]

World record holder[]

Fordyce was the world record holder over 50 miles from 1983, when he covered the distance in 4hr 50min 51sec during the 53m 1082yds London to Brighton ultramarathon until the record was broken by Jim Walmsley on 5 May 2019. Fordyce holds the 50-mile record for the United States All Comers Race[2]

Political activism[]

Fordyce was strongly anti-apartheid.[5] On his first victory race in 1981 he wore a black armband to protest against the 20th anniversary celebrations of the apartheid republic[3] attracting boos and even some rotten tomatoes thrown by a fellow runner. Fordyce has claimed this protest as "one of the proudest moments in my life".[2]

Books, journalism and motivational speaker[]

In addition to having written two books about the Comrades Marathon, Fordyce was also a sports columnist for various newspapers and magazines, and a SABC television commentator for the 2014 event. He is also a motivational speaker and the chief executive officer of the South African Sports Trust.

Fordyce also introduced the parkrun running events to South Africa.[6] This is a collection of free-entry weekly 5k run events. There are now 158 parkrun events in South Africa as of 1 September 2018.[7]

Other honours[]

In 2004, he was voted 64th in the Top 100 Great South Africans.

In 2007, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of the Witwatersrand.

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Munien, Mallory (1 June 2017). "Bruce Fordyce is inspiring a new generation of running enthusiasts". Daily News. Retrieved 24 June 2017.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c Bloomfield, Mark (2005). "UltraRunning Interview: Comrades Champion Bruce Fordyce". UltraRunning. Archived from the original on 30 March 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2010.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b "Bruce Fordyce to Receive Honorary Degree from Wits University, his Alma Mater". University of the Witwatersrand. 20 November 2007. Archived from the original on 2 March 2011.
  4. ^ Morgan, Brad (February 2010). "Bruce Fordyce: Comrades King". southafrica.info. Archived from the original on 10 January 2014. Retrieved 17 August 2008.
  5. ^ Bruce Fordyce, University of the Witwatersrand Honorary Degree Citation
  6. ^ "Parkrun takes off in South Africa". Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  7. ^ "Parkrun South Africa". Parkrun. Retrieved 3 September 2018.

External links[]

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