5 days ago
Gerda Steyn has two options for rare Comrades Up-Down pairing triumph
Should defending Comrades champions Gerda Steyn and Piet Wiersma emerge victorious again on Sunday, they will become the first women's and men's pair to claim Up and Down crowns together since 2011.
The feat has been achieved only on four occasions, probably reduced by the fact that women were allowed to enter officially only from 1975.
Two years after that the first pairing claimed the double, with Germiston Callies Harriers runners Alan Robb and Lettie van Zyl going Down-Up-Down in 1976, 1977 and 1978.
Robb, a four-time winner of the Comrades, owns the record for most gold medals, awarded to top 10 finishers, with 12, one ahead of Bruce Fordyce.
Fordyce, winner of a record nine Comrade titles — eight of them in a row from 1981 to 1988 — achieved the Up-Down feat with two women over five consecutive years.
