Athletics bosses have, over the years, been involved in petty political boardroom fights and have forgotten to pay tribute to South Africa’s greatest athletes.
If you ask a young athlete today who Matthews Batswadi, Matthews Motshwarateu and Matthews Temane are, you probably wouldn’t get a response. Athletes are often neglected and few people tell their stories. The same applies to coaches, who are continually marginalised and sidelined in decision-making bodies.
Richard Mayer, in his brilliant new book, Three Men Named Matthews: Memories of the Golden Age of South African Distance Running and Its Aftermath, tells the story of these three legends.
The book celebrates the great performances and personalities of the ”golden age” of South African athletics in the 1980s, despite apartheid isolation. Not only does it highlight the achievements of these three great athletes, it also touches on athletes such as Johan Fourie, Sydney Maree, Willie Mtolo, Zola Budd, Elana Meyer, Zithulele Sinqe and Mark Plaatjes. At the end of 1987, the height of the golden age, it was only the Weekly Mail that gave Temane the prominence he deserved by featuring him as the main story on the back pages of the newspaper.
Temane ran 21,1km in 60,11 minutes in 1987 (then the world’s fastest time), Motshwarateu set the world record for 10km at the age of 21, Mtolo won the 1992 New York City Marathon and Plaatjes was the 1993 world marathon champion.
”The book took me 10 years to write. I was motivated by my passion for athletics and my conviction that the personalities and athletics achievements of the three heroes of the book should be commemorated and memorialised appropriately.
”Closely related to my efforts to ensure that these athletes are properly remembered is the hope that young athletes who may read the book will be inspired to emulate the achievements of our greatest runners featured in the book,” writes Mayer.
Mayer is a practising attorney, an active athletics coach and a veteran athlete