South African sports trivia
Who's the most economical bowler in cricket history? Who kicked the most drop-goals ever in a rugby test match? Which sportsman can claim to have suffered the most jet-lag? What's the world's biggest open water swimming event? Take a quick spin through our assortment of South African sports trivia.Athletics
Reggie Walker won the 100 metres at the Olympic Games in London in 1908 - the only South African, and African, to have won the Olympic 100 metres title.
Pole-vaulter Okkert Brits is one of only seven men in history to have successfully cleared six metres or higher. Only three athletes have managed to better Brits' best height of 6.03 metres.
Recognised far and wide as the world's greatest ultra-marathon, the Comrades belonged to one man throughout the 1980s. Bruce Fordyce won the event one nine occasions: in 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1990. He didn't win in 1989, but then again he didn't run that year …
In 1979, Matthews 'Loop-en-val' Motshwarateu smashed Ewald Bonzet Bonzet's SA 10 000m record, becoming the first South African to run the distance in under 28 minutes, in one of the most sensational performances in SA athletics history - only three other South African runners have since beaten the time of 27 minutes and 48.2 seconds that Motshwarateu posted that night. "Loop-en-val" was also the first black South African athlete to break a world record, and still holds the SA 10 kilometre road record. Check out the full story - and origin of his nickname, which translates as Run and fall.
Two of the biggest names in triathlon history grew up in Durban, South Africa, but never represented the country. Paula Newby-Fraser, representing Zimbabwe, is an eight-time Ironman world champion, while Simon Lessing, representing Great Britain, is a five-time world champion.
Boxing
After boxer Brian Mitchell won the WBA junior-lightweight title in 1986, he successfully defended it on 12 occasions before retiring as an undefeated champion. All of his title defences took place outside of South Africa.
'Baby Jake' Matlala, watched by former President Nelson Mandela and top Hollywood actor Will Smith, brought the curtain down on his 22-year professional boxing career on 3 March 2002 with a seventh-round stoppage win over Juan Herrera to retain his WBU junior flyweight title. At just 4ft 10in or 147cm - not much taller than the average 3ft 6in or 107cm tall Lord of the Rings hobbit - Baby Jake was the shortest ever boxing champion.
Canoeing & paddle-skiing
Graeme Pope-Ellis won the tough three-day Dusi Canoe Marathon, contested between Pietermaritzburg and Durban, on 15 occasions, competing in both singles and doubles. Not surprisingly he is known as "the Dusi King".
Paddle-skier Oscar Chalupsky has won the Molokai Challenge, considered the world championship of solo ocean paddling, a record 11 times. Seven of those titles came in succession, from 1983 to 1989.
Cricket
Graeme Pollock's Test batting average of 60.97 is the second-highest in history, the highest ever by a left hander, and he is one of only four batsmen to average over 60 in a Test career.
In just 41 Tests - having made his Test debut at the age of 34 - he scored 2 484 runs at an average of 40.06, with five centuries and 15 fifties. He also captured 47 wickets at an average 39.55 runs per wicket. He never represented South Africa, yet he was nominated as one of the country's cricketers of the 20th century. Who is he?
Geoff Griffin is the only South African to take a hat-trick in Test cricket. He achieved the feat against England at Lords on 23 June 1960. Later in the match he was no-balled for throwing - one of only 11 players to suffer that fate! It proved to be the final Test of his career.
Among bowlers that played 20 or more Tests, South African all-rounder Trevor Goddard is the most economical bowler in history, conceding only 1.64 runs per over.
Mike Procter shares the world record with CB Fry and Sir Donald Bradman of scoring six first-class centuries in succession. Showing that he was a fine all-rounder too, Procter is the only cricketer in history to capture two all-LBW hat-tricks.
Barry Richards once scored 325 runs in a day, playing for South Australia against Western Australia. He went on to score 356, the highest first-class score by a South African batsman.
Left-handed opening batsman Gary Kirsten established a record that can not be broken when, in the first test against Bangladesh in October 2002, he scored a century. His 150 made Kirsten the first batsman in test history to score a century against the other nine test-playing nations.
And who can forget ...? He recently retired from international competition. He had some shortcomings as a batsman, but his third Test century set a new South African record for the fastest in terms of balls faced. He holds the world record for the most dismissals by a non-wicketkeeper in a one-day international, after taking five catches against the West Indies in the Hero Cup in Bombay in 1993/94. Yet he was one of those cricketers whose story is definitely not told by his career statistics. And he could have been playing hockey for South Africa instead. Do you remember that run out?
Golf
South African golfing legend Gary Player is one of only five players to have won golf's Grand Slam of the US Masters, US Open, British Open and US PGA titles. Player is also one of only three golfers to win the British Open in three different decades - in 1959, 1968 and 1974. (The other two players to win the Open in three different decades did so in the nineteenth century.) During his career, Player has won 163 tournaments all over the world, jetting an estimated total of 17.5-million kilometres, more than any other athlete in history - and he's still flying, playing, and winning.
Golfer Sally Little first made her mark when she was named the LPGA Rookie of the Year in 1971/72. She went on to win 15 LPGA titles, including three majors, and in 1985 became the LPGA's twelfth millionaire.
Motorsport
Jody Scheckter is the only South African to have won motor racing's Formula One title. He achieved the feat driving for Ferrari in 1979. The Italian team had to wait another 21 years for their next driver's title, won by Michael Schumacher.
Motorcross star Greg Albertyn made his mark overseas, winning the 125cc world title in 1992, followed by the world 250cc title in 1993 and 1994. He then moved to the United States, where he won the 250cc motorcross title in 1999.
South African powerboat racing legend Peter Lindenberg won the national Formula One title 15 times between from 1981 to 2001. He might have won even more titles had he not also competed in the Powerboat Racing World Series.
Rugby
Springbok flyhalf Jannie de Beer holds the world record for most dropped goals in a Test match. Playing against England in the quarterfinals of the Rugby World Cup in October 1999, De Beer kicked five dropped goals, all in the second half, as South Africa won 44-21. De Beer scored 34 points.
From 23 August 1997 to 28 November 1998, the Springboks won 17 successive rugby Tests to equal the world record. Their record included three wins against Australia, two wins against New Zealand, two wins against England and two wins against France.
Kitch Christie, who coached the Springboks to World Cup success in 1995, was in charge of the Boks for 14 tests. Those matches all ended in victory.
Errol Tobias. Long before South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, Errol Tobias sealed his place in South African rugby history by becoming the first black player to start a Test match for the Springboks, when he faced Ireland at Newlands on 30 May 1981. He was 31 at the time. With a gifted backline outside of him - including great players like Danie Gerber and Carel du Plessis - Tobias excelled at orchestrating flowing movements that tore the opposition to shreds. In the four matches that he played at flyhalf, South Africa scored 122 points, running in 18 tries, 12 of them by backline players. He retired in 1984, having played 15 times for the Springboks, including in six Tests - all of which South Africa won.
Soccer
Pule 'Ace' Ntsoelengoe, the midfield general of many fine Kaizer Chiefs teams of the mid-1970s to mid-1980s, was inducted into the United States National Soccer Hall of Fame in October 2003. "Ace" played 11 seasons in North America, representing the Miami Torros, Denver Dynamos, Minnesota Kicks and Toronto Blizzards in the North American Soccer League (NASL). He ranked among the league's all-time leaders in both appearances and goals scored, and was voted onto the NASL's All Star line-up in 1979 and 1982. Former South Africa coach Clive Barker - among many others - rates Ace as perhaps the best player SA has ever produced.
He's had a street in Amsterdam named after him. He's had a book written and a film made about him. He was the first black South African to play professional football in Europe. After signing up for English club Coventry City in 1955, he went on to achieve superstar status playing for the Dutch side Heracles and later for Torino in Italy, becoming one of a few players in Europe to earn £10 000 a year. By 1959 he was rated one of the best soccer players in Europe. Who was 'Kalamazoo'?
Swimming
One-legged swimmer Natalie du Toit made history when she qualified for the final of the 800 metres freestyle at the 2002 Commonwealth Games - the first time in history that an elite athlete with disability qualified for the final of an able-bodied event.
South African breaststroke swimmer Penny Heyns broke four world records in two days in July 1999 in the 100 and 200 metres. She went on to set eight world records in 11 races.
Karen Muir was voted into Swimming's Hall of Fame in 1980. She became the youngest ever world record holder in any sport in 1965, at age 12, when she established a new mark in the 110 yards backstroke. She went on to set 15 world records.
The Midmar Mile is the world's largest open water swimming event. It was first held in 1973 because petrol restrictions at that time prevented a group of friends from attending the Buffalo Mile in East London! Nowadays it is held over two days to accommodate all the swimmers, and in 2003 drew 16 050 competitors.
Tennis
Tennis doubles team Bob Hewitt and Frew McMillan won 57 career titles, including three Wimbledon crowns. After teaming up they played 45 matches before they suffered their first loss.
South Africa's tennis players have one Davis Cup title to their credit. The feat was achieved in 1974 when India withdrew from the final to protest South Africa's apartheid policy, leaving South Africa winners by default.
Other sports
Surfer Shaun Thomson won the world title in 1977. Maybe a greater claim to fame for the man from Durban is that many people regard him as the best tube rider of all time.
Bodybuilder Reg Park won the Mr Universe title in 1958 and 1965. He appeared in movies as Hercules between his two wins, and went on to become Arnold Schwarzenegger's bodybuilding inspiration.
The South African men's bowls team, playing in the World Bowls Championships on home soil in 1976, achieved the unique feat of winning every single title on offer. Doug Watson was crowned singles champion. He and Bill Moseley won the pairs. Kevin Campbell, Nando Gatti and Kelvin Lightfoot triumphed in the triples, and Campbell, Gatti, Lightfoot and Moseley captured the fours title.
Anneli Wucherpfenning (Drummond-Hay) enjoyed a spectacular sporting career in show jumping, winning the sport's biggest event, the Badminton Trials, by the biggest margin in history. Among her other victories were wins in the British Championships, Bughley Horse Trials, the Imperial Cup, the Queen Elizabeth Cup, and the British Jumping Derby.
More on the subject of sporting greats who grew up, or at least were born in, South Africa: Gary Anderson, seemingly destined for American football's Hall of Fame, the scorer of the most points in the history of the NFL, was born in Parys and raised in Durban. And Steve Nash, elected an NBA All-Star in 2002, to play in a match that celebrates the biggest guns in US basketball, was born in Johannesburg.
|
