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Syster to join greats
21/12/2004 22:05 - (SA)
Eben Human, Die Burger
Cape Town - Ian Syster is one of an elite group of athletes who has been invited to run in the Flora London Marathon in England on April 17 next year.
Amongst the invitees are Stefano Baldini (Olympic champion), Jaouad Gharib from Morocco (world champion) and Paul Tergat of Kenya (world record holder).
Some other big names are also included.
It is therefore no wonder that chief organiser David Bedford hinted that this could be a much better marathon than the one in which Olympic gold was at stake.
For Syster his last two marathons were disastrous. He could not finish in the Olympics and in October he faded after 30km in the Beijing Marathon. The latter race was won by Kenyan James Moiben in 2 hours 10 min 42 seconds.
"Three marathons per year are simply too many. Next year I want to run in London and I'll possibly run in Chicago in October," Syster said on Tuesday.
He revealed that at the moment he does not run longer than one hour in practice. "I'll only start training for London in January," he said.
Other South Africans who have done well in the marathon this year are Gert Thys (won the Seoul Marathon in March in 2:07:06) and Hendrick Ramaala who won in New York in November in a time of 2:09:28.
- Die Burger
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