Брюс Фордайс: Оңтүстік Африка марафоншысының өмірі мен жетістіктері

South African runner

Bruce Noel Stevenson Fordyce (born 3 December 1955 in Hong Kong) is a South African marathon and ultramarathon athlete. He is best known for having won the South African Comrades Marathon a record nine times, of which eight wins were consecutive. He also won the London to Brighton Ultramarathon three years in a row. He is the former world record holder over 50 miles and the former world record holder over 100 km.

Born in Hong Kong to Evan Noel and Nancy Ann (Née Stevenson), Fordyce moved with his family to Johannesburg when he was 13 years old. He completed his school career at Woodmead High School and subsequently attended the University of the Witwatersrand, and was the winner for an unprecedented eight consecutive years from 1981 to 1988; he won it again in 1990.

Fordyce was the world record holder over 50 miles, when he covered the distance in 4hr 50min 51sec at the 1984 AMJA 50 Mile Ultramarathon in Chicago, IL, until the record was broken by Jim Walmsley on 5 May 2019. Fordyce holds the 50 mile record for the United States All Comers Race.

Fordyce was strongly anti apartheid. On his first victory race in 1981 he wore a black armband to protest against the 20th anniversary celebrations of the apartheid republic attracting boos and even some rotten tomatoes thrown by a fellow runner. Fordyce has claimed this protest as "one of the proudest moments in my life". This is a collection of free entry weekly 5k run events. There are now 210 parkrun events in South Africa as of 16 October 2023. Fordyce ran his 500th parkrun at Delta Park, Johannesburg, the first South African parkrun venue, on 14 October 2023.

In 2004, he was voted 64th in the Top 100 Great South Africans. In 2007, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of the Witwatersrand.