Women's Distance Running Rising Again

After South Africa returned from isolation in the early Nineties, the nation was blessed with some of the world's best women's distance runners.

- Wesley Botton

Elana Meyer was the star performer, securing Olympic 10,000m bronze in 1992, winning the half-marathon world title in 1994 and breaking multiple world records over 15km and 21km on the road.

But she was not alone. After returning to South Africa, Zola Budd finished fourth at the 1993 World Cross Country Championships, while Frith van der Merwe was seventh in the marathon race at the 1993 World Championships, and Colleen de Reuck won the prestigious Berlin Marathon in 1996.

At the turn of the century, however, the well dried up. Budd and Van der Merwe reached the end of their elite careers, while De Reuck shifted allegiance to the United States, and Meyer was left to carry the flag until she retired from competitive athletics in 2004.