HISTORY
RACE RESULTS
Date | Tuesday, 24 May |
Weather | Fine and mild to warm. |
Start Venue/Time | Pietermaritzburg City Hall / 7:10 |
Finish Venue | Durban City Hall |
Time Limit | 12 Hours |
Official Distance | 89.929 km (54miles 1120yards) |
Winner’s Average Speed | 10.012 km/hr (6m 0s /km) |
Entries | 47 |
Starters | 34 |
Finishers – Total | 16 |
Men | 16 |
Medals – Silver | 16 |
% Finishers / Starters | 47.1 |
In a single line across Commercial Road, outside the City Hall, stood thirty-four official, and four unofficial, scantily clad men. They were waiting for someone to fire a pistol and send them on a pioneering journey, on foot, to the coast in faraway Durban; an unimaginable 54 miles away.
Shortly after 7 o’clock, a gunshot roared across the city and the greatest sporting extravaganza in the world was under way.
It was not a great extravaganza then, of course… but it has metamorphosed into such over the years.
No one knew what would happen to those pioneering souls, during the course of that day, as they shuffled down the hill and out of sight. The first leader, crossing the bridge over the Umsinduzi River was Butcher Purcell, followed by Harry Phillips and Bill Rowan.
Leaving the city, a dusty sand road meandered over the hills and through the valleys all the way to Durban. Purcell, Phillips and Rowan were still together at Cato Ridge but, by the foot of Inchanga, Purcell had fallen two minutes behind. As the two leaders left Drummond, Rowan went into the lead, where he remained.
Through Gillitts and Pinetown, followed by a convoy of bicycles, motorcycles and cars, Rowan increased the distance between himself and Phillips, who was plagued by a persistent knee injury.
Covered in brown, suffocating dust, but undeterred by it, Rowan finally strode down West Street, at the head of the convoy, to the finish line outside the City Hall. His time was 8h 59m. It remains, to this day, the slowest winning time.
Despite the troublesome knee, Phillips soldiered on, arriving at the City Hall in 9h 40m.
To commemorate his epic performance, the coveted Bill Rowan Medal was introduced in the Millennium year, 2000. It is awarded to those runners who fail to achieve a prestigious, sub 7h 30m, Silver Medal, but who finish inside 9 hours.
RESULT
1st | Bill Rowan | South Africa | 8h 59m 00s Established Best Time Down |
2nd | Harry Phillips * | South Africa | 9h 40m 00s |
3rd | John Annan | South Africa | 10h 10m 00s |
4th | R.S. Skinner | South Africa | 10h 27m 00s |
5th | Butcher Purcell | South Africa | 10h 37m 00s |
6th | Russell Main | South Africa | 10h 44m 00s |
7th | Albert Marie | South Africa | 11h 04m 00s |
8th | Llyn Mitcalfe | South Africa | 11h 06m 00s |
9th | L.M. Moran ** | South Africa | 11h 13m 00s |
9th | A.A. Imray ** | South Africa | 11h 13m 00s |
* Harry Phillips subsequently represented South Africa in the Marathon at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris where he finished in 19th position in 3h 07m 13s.
** Finished together.