Who was Sydney Maree?

off the top of my head:

South African who broke 4 min in the mile, but couldn't compete internationally because SA was banned for practicing apartheid (and he got the double jeopardy on that one). Went to Villanova, claimed to run his morning runs in about 4:30 pace, ran about 100 mile per week with no run longer than 12 miles (that from Running With the Champions, or whatever it is called, by Michael Sandrock). Ran just a little off the then-WR in the 5k (13:01) and the AR in the 1500m (3:29.77). COached by, I think, the guy who is currently coaching @ Haverford College.

Kind of ironic really. Black South African, discriminated against in his own country because of his skin color. The rest of world, to protest discrimination against blacks, doesn't allow him to compete because he's from a country that discriminates against his people!

Sydney Maree was a great runner, unfortunately he never quite produced the goods in a major games. He broke the world record in the 1500 at a time when the likes of Cram, Ovett and Coe were at their best, so lets say he was pretty good! He also finished second to ave Moorcroft when he broke th WR in the 5k

Maree ran Oslo in 1982? What was his time?

True he was coached by Tom Donnelly of Haverford as was Marcus and Paranya. The guy was amazing, but just as amazing was how ripped the guy was. People at the gym in Bryn Mawr where he lifted still talk about him....

In 1982 Maree was ranked 1st in the world over 1500m 3:32:12 (ahed of Steve Scott 3:32.33), 2nd at the mile 3:48:85 (behind Scott 3:47:69) and 2nd over 3K 7:33:37 (behind Dave Moorcroft 7:32:79). Awesome stuff.

malmo wrote:

Maree ran Oslo in 1982? What was his time?

Waz is a little off. Maree ran Oslo in 1982, but was in the MILE. He got 2nd to Steve Scott, 3:48 for both of them.

The guy who was 2nd to Moorcroft in the 5000 at Oslo in 1982 was the USA's Ralph King.

Maree did, however, finish 2nd to Aouita in a 5000 at Oslo, in 1985, in which Aouita broke Moorcroft's record.

Got all that?

Maree was great, but he seemed to have the misfortune of finishing 2nd behind many other greats.

Malmo:

Piecing together the results, I think it's as follows:

1. Sydney Maree 3:33.7 (mannual)

2. Steve Scott 3:33.9

3. John Walker 3:34.0

4. David Moorcroft 3:34.3

Martin

"1982: Duran Duran was king, Atari was a cutting edge technology ..." and malmo fell just short of the World Record (1,100,000) in PacMan!!!!

Oops;

Indeed, you're correct - the times I found were for the 1500 en route to the mile.

Here are those results (June 26, 1982: Oslo Mile)

1. Steve Scott 3:48.53

2. Sydney Maree 3:48.85

3. John Walker 3:49.34

4. Ray Flynn 3:50.54

5. John Gregorek 3:51.34

Martin

maree was sick... appearently once about 4 hours before his race in the penn relays he started doing 600m repeats at like 1:25 a pop... errr something crazy like that.

Martin wrote:

Oops;

Indeed, you're correct - the times I found were for the 1500 en route to the mile.

Here are those results (June 26, 1982: Oslo Mile)

1. Steve Scott 3:48.53

2. Sydney Maree 3:48.85

3. John Walker 3:49.34

4. Ray Flynn 3:50.54

5. John Gregorek 3:51.34

Martin

It's a bit confusing as to which is THE Bislett Games meet, but I found two different miles, on two different dates, at Oslo in 1982. Here's the other one:

Oslo 07 July 1982

Scott 3:47.69

Walker 3:49.08

Flynn 3:49.77

malmo wrote:

"...and malmo fell just short of the World Record (1,100,000) in PacMan!!!!

Wow, no wonder you are so revered on this board. That's got to be video game hall of fame stuff there....

I recall being at the track at Nats early on a Sat. am in 1983. Maree shows up and begins running 400's. I manage to time the last 3-4 of what must have been a total of 8-10. I got them in 50. Can't recall what he did that night in the 1500 final!

I seem to remember he made a few of our national teams. I also recall him getting some grief because he showed up for one of the comps. (WC?) injured and didn't even run a qualifying round.

S. Maree made his 1st (of two) US Olympic teams in 1984, then again in 1988 (injured at the OG both times). Maree finished 3rd in the 1500m behind Jim Spivey and Steve Scott. Maree edged Chuck Aragon over the last 30 meters of the race to finish 3rd. I belive Maree is now back in SA, working in the banking business. NOTE Maree held the AR 5000, that Bob Kennedy has since taken. I believe Maree's 5k at the time was #3 on the all time list behind Moorcroft/UK, and Aouita.

Maree was in the race where Seb Coe set his PB of 3:29.77 in Rieti in '86. They set a smoking pace for the first 600 but Maree lost contact and Coe continued alone. Would have been nice to see Coe regain the record at age 30. He was very close anyway.

It was '84 when Maree made the team but didn't relinquish his spot(injury) on time to allow Chuck Aragon to run in his place. That's what he got grief for. Apparently there was no real chance he could have recovered in time to run. At least not well.

Maree followed "PACMAN'S" school of thought and trained/raced thru his boo-boo's and was rewarded with great spectator seats at the L.A. & Seoul Olympics.

Aragon got screwed because Maree's coach (I believe the guy's name was Warhurst) told him that it was Syd's choice whether to run or not and that he should wait until race day to make it.

B.S. 1,100,000

He did run in 1988.

Fifth in the 5000m at 13:23.

Olympic, Seoul 1988

1 John Ngugi KEN 13.11.70

2 Dieter Baumann FRG 13.15.52

3 Hansjörg Kunze GDR 13.15.73

4 Domingos Castro POR 13.16.09

5 Sydney Maree USA 13.23.69

6 Jack Buckner GBR 13.23.85

7 Stefano Mei ITA 13.26.17

8 Yevgeni Ignatov BUL 13.26.41