Sydney Maree

Sydney Maree was born in the South Africa. He rose to international level competition there. Subsequently,he moved to the US. Eventually he married a US citizen and became a US citizen himself. He ran some fantastic times.

Who knows how far he may have developed had 'Nova not run his ass in the ground.

There was even a distance running trainer by Reebok named after Sydney Maree. Back in the 80's it was called the "Sydney Maree Trainer". I like it. One of Reebok's best distance trainers in many years.

So my question is: If Sydney Maree was such a success to Reebok and the distance running community back in the 80's, does Reebok thinking they can sign Alan Webb to a multi-year six figure contract make him the next in line? Or was there a Reebok distance guy between these two that I haven't heard about?

Isn't/wasn't Kevin Sullivan with Reebok?

The Sydney Maree trainer was my favorite shoe of all time. I haven't found a shoe like it since. I went through about 10 pairs of the shoe. Can anyone find a picture of it?

I think Steve Jones would be one distance guy between Maree and Webb that was sponsored by Reebok. Isn't Fermin Cacho also sponsored by Reebok(or was)?

How far he may have developed? Are you kidding? The man ran 3:29 and 13:00, both times narrowly missing world records. I would say that is good post-college development.

sydney did hold the world record for 1500 meters...august of 1983 I believe[quote]??

Sydney ran himself into the ground, Jumbo and Donnelly both had to hold back his training. His daily regime was 7 miles in the morning and 10 in the afternoon. Both variants of the same loop, both runs at just above 5 min. pace. Oh yah and in the off season he would go down to Philadelphia Nautalus and outlift the Philly Eagles.

and don't forget about all of the road races...

yah, word to the doc

No he didn't develop in SA and move over here. He came to Villanova as a very promising 18/19 year old (maybe 4:00 credentials), and developed from there. He ran 3:57 as a frosh, and that was a huge breakthrough.

3:31.24 WR in 83 ... Ovett soon lowered it to 3:30.77.

Reebok used to sponsor the "THREE BIG" road racers back when I was in High School in the late 80's. I remember hanging the poster in my dorm room of Arturo Barrios (World Record 10k, 1hr), Steve Jones (World Record marathon), and Ed Eyestone (top American road racer and cross country) running in the rain. All three of these running icons cost Reebok a fraction of what Webb will cost. I wish they would spread the wealth to some of the other top Americans. But that is for another debate.-Art

MP-Portland wrote:

There was even a distance running trainer by Reebok named after Sydney Maree. Back in the 80's it was called the "Sydney Maree Trainer". I like it. One of Reebok's best distance trainers in many years.

So my question is: If Sydney Maree was such a success to Reebok and the distance running community back in the 80's, does Reebok thinking they can sign Alan Webb to a multi-year six figure contract make him the next in line? Or was there a Reebok distance guy between these two that I haven't heard about?

I agree Art.

It seems like such a big waste of money for Reebok to rely on just one distance runner to market for their running line...

Do they sponsor any distance runners now?

Justyn Knight (sp?), I think. Or did that Reebok-sponsored club disband?

I wonder if any of these original posters from 20 years ago are still floating around this website??

I would love to know what happened to Sydney after his troubles in South Africa. He was a wonderful human being and obviously extremely gifted. Anyone have a clue?