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A historic fourth Two Oceans Marathon win for Kovsie alumna Gerda Steyn

15 April 2023 | Story Gerda-Marié van Rooyen | Photo Two Oceans Marathon Twitter

Gerda Steyn winning the 2023 Two Oceans Marathon — Former UFS student, Gerda Steyn, made history this weekend – she is the first woman to win the Two Oceans Ultra Marathon four consecutive times.

Kovsie alumna Gerda Steyn provided much jubilation on Saturday 15 April 2023, as she became the first woman to win the Two Oceans Marathon four consecutive times. Steyn, who represented South Africa in the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan, in 2021, improved her personal best by finishing the race 39 seconds faster than her winning time in 2022.

Shortly after her fourth win in the 56 km race, Steyn told media that the desire to inspire girls kept her motivated during the race. “I thought of all the girls watching (the race) with their parents and seeing a woman who looked like everyone else winning this big race.” The former University of the Free State (UFS) professional athlete managed an average pace of 3:45 minutes per kilometre. Steyn proved that hard work pays off, as she finished 14th at the Two Oceans Ultra Marathon in 2016. Her first-ever first place at this race was in 2018, and again in 2019 and 2022 – the marathon was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Proving that she not only has golden feet but a heart of gold too, she pledged to donate some of her bonus money towards the development of athletes living in Muizenberg shortly after she won the Two Oceans in record time in 2022. A true example of perseverance and hard work, she also won the Comrades Marathon in 2019, and finished seventh in the London Marathon in 2020.

Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS, says that Gerda is an embodiment of focus and determination. “I am so proud of her. The UFS is truly the home of champions, as can be seen by the achievements of Olympic track athletes Wayde van Niekerk, Louzanne Coetzee, and champions in many other sporting codes.”

Saturday’s Two Oceans Marathon saw Ethiopian-born Amelework Fikadu Bosho finish second in the women’s race – crossing the finish line 12 minutes after Steyn – with Carla Molinaro from Britain in the third position. Approximately 10 000 athletes entered the race, starting at the Newlands Stadium and ending on the University of Cape Town's campus.

News Archive

Ladies smash competition to reign supreme

2017-03-09

Description:Stagedoor 2017 Tags: Stagedoor 2017 longdesc=

This year, the ladies from Roosmaryn and Sonnedou
walked away as the Stagedoor winners.
Photo: Johan Roux

This year, the first-years gave a show-stopping performance as they showed the audience how to make Stagedoor great again.

Hard work and sacrifice pays off

Let’s make Stagedoor great again was the theme behind this year’s Stagedoor production, which allowed all residences to get their creative juices flowing by bringing the theme to life in their own unique way.

Divine Bitalo, Roosmaryn RC Culture, said that they are honoured to have been crowned as the champions. “We put in a lot of hard work and sacrifice and we are just glad that everything worked out in the end.”

First-years given amazing platform

Teneal van Deventer, Sonnedou RC Culture, concurred with the words of Divine and also thanked the university for the opportunity. “I would like to thank Kovsies for giving our first-years this amazing platform to showcase their talents and make new friends.”

The Stagedoor finals, which took place on Saturday 4 March at Kovsie Church, saw our first-years battle it out to be crowned as this year’s winners and claiming the bragging rights for the year.

The winners were:

1st place: Roosmaryn and Sonnedou

2nd place: BeyCon (Beyers Naude and Conlaures)

3rd place: Marjolein and Legatum

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