Track and field athletics is a collection of sports events that involve running, throwing, jumping and walking. Organised athletics are traced back to the Ancient Olympic Games from 776 BC, and most modern events are conducted by the member clubs of the International Association of Athletics Federations.
After more than 12 years of coaching runners of all abilities we finally decided to register as running club!Our first intake this year saw 50 athletes sign up with us, and soon you will see the red, black and white FFA vests bobbing on the roads, tracks and trails of South Africa and beyond. We are trying hard to not only promote running to our members and the running community at large, but also to make running affordable, enjoyable and as exciting as possible! FFA AC is a sports club affiliated to National and Provincial Athletic bodies in South Africa.The aims and objectives of the club shall be to encourage members and newcomers in the area of running and an active lifestyle. Also to nurture junior runners and motivate the benefits of long term participation in running.We will endeavour to be recognised by other members of the running community for our great spirit, the achievements of the club and individual members, as well as our contribution to the community as a whole. For more information or to join, please contact info@fitnessfromafrica.co.za
For Keith Reynolds the 2011 Comrades marathon was always going to be special. Sure he has got a double green number, but after 23 attempts something was still missing from his medal collection. This is his story.
New Year, new training! Our brand new training group at the Roodepoort Athletics Stadium will kick off this week. Sessions will be on Monday and Wednesday afternoons at 17h00 at the Ruimsig stadium. Contact us for more information.
Running training groups are hosted at the school and caters for all abilities including sprinters, middle distance runners, triathletes, marathon and ultra marathon runners. Sessions are on Monday and Thursday evenings from 17h30 until 18h30.
Most of us have heroes in any sport we enjoy. Whether it’s a sport we do ourselves, or just a spectator sport. Whenever I watch some sporting activity on TV, almost automatically I root for one of the teams or competitors, if it’s an individual sport, over the rest. The reason for selecting a particular person is not always the same. Perhaps it’s the person’s proficiency at his/her event, a previous sporting achievement, dominance of an event, attitude towards success, or maybe just because he or she is the underdog or the new kid on the block.
One of my favourite runners of yesteryear is the Czech Emil Zatopek. Known as a notoriously hard worker, at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, Zatopek became the first and almost certainly the only man in Olympic history ever to win the three long-distance events, the 5000m, the 10 000m, and the marathon. What is even more remarkable is that it was the first time he had raced the full marathon distance and did so only three days after winning the 10 000m final! He won all three events within seven days, and set Olympic records in them all. By the end of that year he held every world record from the 10 000m to the marathon, and in 1954 he added the 5000m world record as well. All in all he set 18 world records during his career.
The year was 1997, and it was the “Down Run”.Only two runners were left in a field of over 14000 runners with less than ten kilometres to run. Taking turns to surge in a desperate bid for victory they emulated two boxers who were exchanging blows with only will power keeping them on their feet.In the end there could be only one, and Nick Bester was the first to succumb to fatigue and could only watch as Charl Mattheus slowly but surely pulled away for his first official victory of the world’s greatest ultra marathon, in a time of 5h28min.
In one of the FFA newsletters earlier this year, a phrase was included that went along the lines of “don’t expect different results by doing the same things”.I was training for my 7th Two Oceans with FFA coming into 2010, and decided that perhaps it was time to shake things up a bit.
With Comrades 2010 just around the corner, the excitement is building! Along with it comes a fair amount of uncertainty and concern. To help you settle the nerves, its time for some final planning!
