JACK MILNER

For the record, Vic Boston completed his 38^th successive Comrades. This year he raced in the 50 to 59 age group and completed the 89,28 km downhill race from Pietermaritzburg to Durban in 10 hours and 17 seconds. That gave him another bronze medal.

This week I want to talk about another two Jewish Comrades runners. I know there were many more, but these two have achieved something special for different reasons. The 61-year-old Maurice Rosen is very much in the same category as Vic Boston who has persevered year after year to complete this gruelling race.

RIGHT: Craig Cynkin in action during the 2014 Comrades Marathon in which he finished in 34^th place overall
 

The second is Craig Cynkin, a 28-year-old who is a serious runner and has performed with aplomb in his three races so far.

This year Craig finished in 34^th place overall, completing the race in six hours, five minutes and 57 seconds, earning himself a silver medal. The former King David High School learner, was the first Jewish runner home, but I’m not sure if even he realises he was the first white South African home.

It was a tremendous feat from Craig who moved from position 119 after 17,5 km, improved to 93 at the halfway stage and slowly made up the ground as the front runners started to tire.

What I found interesting when looking at his statistics was his consistency. He started off the race with one kilometre taking him 3 min 51 seconds to complete and by the end of the race he was still running each kilometre at an average of 4 minutes and six seconds.   

Craig, who runs for ADT Athletic Club, still has many Comrades ahead of him and I’m sure he will soon be looking to a top 20 finish.  

Maurice, who was born on January 4 1953, ran his first Comrades in 1979. He has been a silent member of Rocky Road Runners Club for many years. He is a humble, unassuming person who has completed 31 Comrades, mostly run back to back.

For people who don’t know, 10 complete Comrades entitles one to a green number and membership to a special green number club. 

Membership allows one to have certain privileges, such as free entry to the race and VIP treatment on registration at the venue. 

Maurice has successfully earned himself an exceptionally rare triple green number, an honour held by just a small number of people.

The Comrades Marathon Association has altered their rules to give medals to those who finished in over 11 hours but under 12 hours and until this year Maurice had completed all of his marathons in under 11 hours. In 2000 he won a special Bill Rowan medal for completing his race in under nine hours.

It obviously gets tougher as one gets older and this year he completed the event in 11 hours 30 minutes and 14 seconds. 

Maurice does all his training on his own, come rain, wind or shine, with most of it completed before the sun comes up. It’s as if he is driven by the thrill of the race and in April this year his training included running some 630 km. Many people don’t even drive that distance in a month, let alone run it!

Despite work and life pressure, after many years of running he nevertheless remains hungry and still has a tremendous drive and enthusiasm for the sport.

Table tennis success for Jewish players

There was success for three Jewish players at the 2014 Northern Gauteng Table Tennis Championships recently.

LEFT: Danica Schlome (left) and Chavah Barit, show the gold medals won at the 2014 Northern Gauteng Table Tennis Championship

Aiden Schlome took the boys under-14 singles title while sister Danica won the girls under-17 title. Both are currently learners at King David Linksfield in Johannesburg.

In the girls under-21 singles championship, Chavah Barit, a student at the University of Pretoria, took gold. Chavah, who is 18, is currently studying sport science, having matriculated in 2013 at King David Linksfield.

Danica and Chavah teamed up at the 2013 Maccabi Games to represent South Africa at the Israeli extravaganza. As a girls doubles junior team, they took third place in the team event as well as in the girls doubles, finishing in both sections behind Germany and Israel.