Bruce is a household name in South Africa and is considered to be one of the world’s greatest ultra-marathon runners. He ran his first Comrades Marathon in 1977 and has since won eight consecutive Comrades, then missed 1989 (won by Sam Tshabalala, the first black Comrades winner) in order to run and win the World 100km Championships in Stellenbosch. He then won a ninth Comrades in 1990, no other runner in the history of the Comrades has ever achieved this feat. Bruce held record times for both the up and down runs, until the Russian Leonid Shvetsov broke both. Although Shvetsov’s records are highly dubious, the Up record still stands but he lost his Down record to Leonid Shvetsov last year: Down Record: Men: David Gatebe: 5:18:19 (2016) Up: Men: Shvetsov: 5:24:49 (2008); run. Bruce Fordyce is also the world record holder for the 50 mile, which he set in 1983 while running the famous London – Brighton race. His attributes epitomise the self-achiever. Beneath a friendly, almost gentle exterior he has a will of iron. Guts, determination perseverance, careful planning and self-discipline are the qualities Bruce relies on to achieve results.
“Sanani”, as she’s affectionately known by her friends and family, was born in eMthatha in the Eastern Cape. She discovered hockey in Kokstad where she attended primary school, but her love for the game blossomed when she was selected for junior provincial teams at Epworth, a Pietermaritzburg boarding school. Her hard work and dedication to the game paid off as she was awarded a full scholarship to study at the University of Pretoria (Tuks) majoring in Financial Management. It is while at Tuks that she was invited to attend a training camp with the South African women’s hockey team. At 19, she earned her first senior national cap. In October 2013, she suffered a possible career-ending injury when she snapped her Achilles tendon while training. She describes the operation and subsequent rehabilitation as one of the most testing and character-building times of her hockey career. She made it back to fitness within four months in time to play in the 2014 Hockey World Cup. Nine years later, with over 100 caps to her name, she still regards that first cap as one of the proudest moments of her life and says that the feeling of playing for her country, “Never gets old”. Her career highlights include the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 2014 Hockey World Cup.”
Graeme led South Africa to victory 8 out of 12 Test Series – two were drawn and two were lost – against Pakistan, New Zealand and the West Indies, Bangladesh and India. Won 16 out of 19 ODIs against Zimbabwe, Pakistan, New Zealand, the West Indies and Bangladesh and won six out of eight T20/Pro20s. In the process South Africa regained the No 1 Reliance Mobile ICC ODI ranking from Australia while Smith was personally ranked as the No 1 ODI batsman in the world. Apart from the No 1 ODI ranking he achieved a whole succession of individual landmarks. These included 5 000 runs in both Test match and ODI cricket and, he was the second youngest to reach this milestone after Sachin Tendulkar. Graeme is the most successful test captain in test history (53 test wins) and also the only captain to have registered 50+ test wins, having overtaken Ricky Ponting’s 48 Test victories. Graeme is the only person in Test Cricket history to have captained his country in 100 Tests.
Rory is Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of NSA Global Security Consultants, who offer a variety of specialised security services. Prior to this, Rory had a long and accomplished history in the South African Police Service, where he specialised as an investigator, intelligence field-worker and section head of the Johannesburg VIP Protection and Bomb Disposal Units. Rory was appointed to the Presidential Protection Unit in 1996 as team leader of one of President Nelson Mandela’s personal protection teams and was responsible for the protection of the President both nationally and internationally. He retired from the SAPS in July 1999 with the rank of Superintendent (Lieutenant-Colonel) and Dr. Ali Bacher, managing director of the then United Cricket Board of SA, appointed Rory as the UCB’s first security consultant in preparation for the country’s hosting of the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2003. Rory has grown to become an internationally renowned expert on executive protection and major sports event security, and is a sought-after conference speaker and consultant to organising bodies and sporting federations in this field, globally. He holds Comrades Green Number 42743 and has run a marathon on every one of the world’s seven continents, many for charity.
One of South Africa’s favourite sons, best known as the Springbok fly-half who scored all the points in South Africa’s fabled victory in the 1995 Rugby World Cup Final against New Zealand’s All Blacks. Who can ever forget THAT dramatic drop-goal late in the second period of extra-time, or the images of our beloved President Mandela handing the Webb Ellis Cup to the Springboks and the national jubilation that followed as our young democracy was born? In 1997, Joel moved to the Leicester Tigers in England, where he played for several seasons, winning the 1998/99 Allied Dunbar Premiership, before becoming the Tigers’ Backs coach. Eight years ago Joel was challenged by our celebrated Olympic Silver medallist Elana Meyer to enter the Absa Cape Epic, known as the world’s premier mountain bike stage race; and the rest as they say is history.
“There are loads of wonderful moments that I have enjoyed, one of the stand-outs was crossing the finish line at my first Absa Cape Epic. The feeling of conquering such a huge challenge is one of real achievement”! Since then Joel has finished seven editions of the Cape Epic, one of the toughest endurance events in the world, competing in both celebrity and charity-based teams. Last year (2017) he crashed during the opening Prologue and was airlifted to hospital. Joel’s injuries included broken ribs, a punctured lung and extensive facial lacerations that required plastic surgery to repair. But determination is one of his strengths and he was back again to tackle the 2018 Absa Cape Epic, where he and teammate Andrew Maclean won Bronze in the Grandmasters category. Joel is married to Karen and they have two children. He is an accomplished businessman: the managing director and founder of Pivotal Capital, a TV sports commentator and international speaker.
In 2003 Steve was honoured with the Order of Australia for services to cricket and charity. He made his Test debut against India in the 1985–86 season, in the Second Test at Melbourne. Steve retired in January 2004, after 18 years at the highest level, leaving behind an incredible highlight reel as the second highest Australian Test run scorer, and winningest cricket captain in history, surpassing even the great Clive Lloyd who led the marvellous West Indies team of the 70s and 80s. Steve captained the Australian Test team between 1999 and 2004, leading them to a world record 16 consecutive Test victories. Asked before the final Ashes Test in 2003, at his beloved Sydney Cricket Ground, to nominate the defining moment of a career likely to soon be over, Waugh made a prediction rather than reflecting, stating: “It might be yet to come.” On the second day of the match he then fulfilled this prophecy, scoring a chanceless century – bringing up three figures with a cover driven boundary from the last ball of the day to equal Sir Don Bradman’s then record of 29 Test centuries.Steve was known as a player with an iron will who exemplified grit, determination and strength of character; and to all who played under him as an inspiring leader. “I try and instil faith in the players and give them self-belief and really empower them to be the best they can be”. In 2009 Steve became the 30th player to be inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
