And crack it he did, winning the
SA 42km Champs in a time of 2Hr 13min 30sec and with it a whopping
R25.000, an amazing amount  of
money to an athlete who ran the race in a borrowed pair of running
shoes and who has been unemployed for a lot longer than he would like
to remember. The amazement of this run is that he does not have a
background to running and he is not one of those athletes who has
stepped up from the track or who has a fast half marathon to boot,
on the contrary his PB's are nothing special.
There was nothing warranting the Western Province Team selectors
to take a chance on selecting him for the team to the SA Championships,
unfortunately he had no record for them to risk selecting him for
the WPARR team. And due to this Ian
had to endure a long bus trip and an uncomfortable night's rest
before the event. Not to fear there are plenty of great athletes
who went on to achieve great things on the back of hardship, Arturio
Barrios for one slept on the floor the night before his first win
on the American road running circuit and he went on to become an
enigma in his time as well as a few world records to boot, hopefully
Ian will be able to join them in scaling the great heights.
The last athlete, that springs to mind who showed such potential
over the marathon distance in the Western Cape was Willie Afrika
(Bellville AC), whose personal best was not of such a high calibre,
and to mention another was Ron Boreham (VOB).
The reason these two athletes are mentioned was because they made
marathon running their speciality and they continued to succeed
and improve at the distance on each outing, a feat not many Cape
athletes have achieved in the 42km distance.
Time-to-Run watches with great
interest and the utmost support in wishing Ian the best of luck
in his pursuits to achieving the heights all the great athletes
have dreamt of for themselves.
Update: Ian
Syster has realised his potential over the distance, and ran 2:07:06
at the London Marathon in 2002. He has now moved into echelons of
one of the top marathon runners in the World and recently placed
7th at the Paris 2003 Championships. He has also improved all his
times from 5K upwards, however none of those times equate to a 2:07
marathon. A man made for the distance.
Time-to-Run source
Time-to-Run Profiles section
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