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10 June 2019 | Story Ruan Bruwer | Photo Gerda Steyn Twitter
Gerda Steyn
Gerda Steyn, a former student at the University of the Free State, won her first Comrades race on Sunday, setting a new course record.
Winning the Comrades ultra-marathon is the greatest honour of her life and still feels unreal, said Gerda Steyn a day after winning the race in a record time.
 
The former Kovsie student had an incredible race on Sunday, completing the 86,83 km’s in a time of 05:58:54, which is a new record for women in the up run. It is more than 10 minutes faster than the previous record of 06:09:23 set in 2006.
 
It was also the fourth fastest Comrades time ever by a female in the 94-year history of the race.
 
Greatest honour of my life
 
“Being the Comrades winner is the greatest honour of my life. Thank you to an entire nation for carrying me to the line. It feels like a dream,” Steyn said.
 
The 29-year-old Steyn became the first woman in 30 years to win both the Comrades and Two Oceans in the same year. She also won the Two Oceans in 2018 and came second in the Comrades last year.
 
Steyn, who studied Quantity Surveying and Construction Management at the University of the Free State (UFS) between 2009 and 2012, said the record time was discussed beforehand.
 
I went for it
 
“We felt it was possible, but it wasn’t my main goal right from the start of the race. At the halfway mark, I saw it was possible and I went for it.”
 
According to Steyn, the media attention since her win is quite intense. “But I don’t complain. It is such an honour, so I do it with a smile.”
 
At the Two Oceans ultra-marathon in April, she missed out on the 30-year record time by just 53 seconds.
 
Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor, said Steyn was a proud ambassador of the university. “It is always important for me to see how our former students perform. I would like to congratulate her. Well done. She is carrying the Kovsie name with pride,” Prof Petersen said.
 

News Archive

ANC Centenary Seminars resume on the Bloemfontein Campus
2012-03-12

12 March 2012

In 2011, as a run-up to the African National Congress (ANC) Centenary Celebrations, the Centre for Africa Studies at the University of the Free State (UFS) hosted a series of dialogues about the ANC to encourage debate and academic discourse.

The series of dialogues resumes this year as the party continues to celebrate 100 years of existence.

The first of three ANC Centenary Seminars for 2012 will start on Wednesday 14 March 2012 on the Bloemfontein Campus. The first seminar is dedicated to the Women’s League and Prof. Shireen Hassim, a professor in Political Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, is the guest speaker. She will speak on the topic “Rethinking Gender: The ANC and Feminism in the 20th century”.

Prof. Hassim has published widely in the areas of social justice, social policy and gender as well as on representative politics. She is the author of Women’s organizations and democracy in South Africa: Contesting authority (2006). She was awarded the Victoria Shuck Award for best book on women and politics by the American Political Science Association in 2007. She is also co-editor of several books, most recently Go home or die here: Xenophobia, violence and the reinvention of difference in South Africa.

  • Venue: Odeion
  • Time: 18:00

 

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