40th anniversary edition of UCT 10km Memorial Run to focus on celebrating Merrilyn Smith

By Stephen Granger

Forty years ago, the life of Merrilyn Smith, a talented athlete and graduate from the University of Cape Town, was tragically cut short in a domestic accident.  On Workers Day this year – 1^st May – runners will line up near the UCT Athletics Club at the Oval to race 10km through leafy Newlands in celebration of Merrilyn’s life.

The UCT race initially focused exclusively on Merrilyn, with her parents, George and Dell Smith, donating the Merrilyn Smith trophy, which has been awarded each year to the first woman home. More recently, the UCT 10km Memorial Run has honoured five athletes who contributed significantly to the club and who lost their lives while they were active club members, or shortly after.

The other four who are remembered are Isavel Roche-Kelly (a friend an UCT teammate to Merrilyn), Lindsay Weight, Kevin Rochford and Andrezj Okreglicki, but this year’s race, in its 40^th anniversary edition, focuses primarily on Merrilyn.

“We are looking forward to a great event in memory of these special athletes, all of whom who were active in the University of Cape Town Athletics Club,” said Neill Hobbs, founding partner at Hobbs Sinclair, the race’s sponsor. “It’s been forty years since the Merrilyn Smith trophy was first won and, particularly after the negative impact of COVID on the sport, we felt it appropriate to make this a special year for many to come and run this scenic route and celebrate the contribution Merrilyn made to the sport and the UCT club in particular.”

Merrilyn Smith pioneered the revival in women’s running at UCT, her positive energy and fine cross country running in the late 1970s setting the stage for UCT’s golden years in the early 80’s when athletes of the calibre of Marian Loveday, Isavel Roche-Kelly and Cathy Fair were in their prime.

Training with these athletes elevated Merrilyn’s own performances and she was an integral part of winning teams at UCT during that era, notably at the remarkable 1981 Intervarsity Road Relay, when the quartet of Cathy Fair, Marian Loveday, Merrilyn and Isavel turned around previous domination by Stellenbosch University with a thrilling victory.

Merrilyn’s improvement on the road and in cross country was such that she was able to cruise to a 3 hr 06 min debut marathon at Stellenbosch, scarcely breaking a sweat, and was selected to represent WP at the South African 10km Championships in Green Point, competing in good company, with the likes of Colleen Lindeque (De Reuck), Zola Budd, Blanche Moila, Dianne Massyn, Sonja Laxton and of course Isavel and Marian setting a fast pace up front!

Merrilyn thrived in leadership. The former Head Girl of Roosevelt School (in Zimbabwe) was described as “the life and soul of the UCT Athletics Club and as ‘projecting an aura of triumphant optimism, her sparkling blue eyes radiating her absolute joy at being alive.’

Merrilyn had a heart for adventure, whether exploring mountain trails in the Western Cape or the majestic Wild Coast.  She lived life to the full, drawing joy out of every moment, but died tragically in a domestic accident on 30 June 1982 at the age of 23.

Former friends and clubmates of Merrilyn are working with the current UCT Athletics Club to bring a special celebration of Merrilyn’s life to the 40^th anniversary race this May, including attracting to the race Merrilyn’s former clubmates, past winners and others involved in advancing the development of the sport in disadvantaged communities.

“We are pleased to welcome many leading runners from the region, including a number of past winners,” said current club chairperson, Deborah Obeng. “Looking back, we’ve been privileged to have hosted many of the best athletes from Cape Town and beyond and many of the country’s best have their names on the Merrilyn Smith Trophy. I’m sure the attractive prizes and incentives will ensure that this year’s race will be one of the most competitive yet.”

The first male and female athlete home will win R5000, with a further R5000 bonus incentive for the first woman home in under 36 minutes. A total of R34 500 prize money can be won throughout all categories and with added accommodation prizes from Vineyard Hotel and mohair racing socks to the first 1200 finishers, the 2022 UCT 10km Memorial Run is likely to attract both quality and quantity.

History of the UCT 10km Memorial Run

Three months before Merrilyn died, UCT hosted their first road race – a 16 km circuit in Constantia. It was bolded branded by the UCT athletics club “Beat our Champions”. No one could and the Cape Town students, Ricky Robinson and Isavel Roche-Kelly romped home as victors. The following year UCT hosted the race again and the Merrilyn Smith Trophy was awarded to the first woman home, remembering the talented former UCT athlete. The trophy was awarded to leading athlete, Patsy Sharples, back in her home town of Cape Town after several successful years on a sports scholarship in the USA. An injured Isavel Roche-Kelly, determined to run as a tribute to her erstwhile friend and teammate, Merrilyn, finished 7^th in the last running race in which she would compete.

A young UCT athlete, Janet Grieve, won the second race in 1984, then reduced to the metric 15km, and took line honours again two years later.  In 1987 the race become known as the Merrilyn Smith Race and was permanently changed to 10km, still based in Constantia. Durban athlete, Grace de Oliveira, won the race, and repeated her win the following year.

The  race moved to Claremont in 1990, with talented Pinelands athlete, Evelina Tshabalala, responsible for her second trophy engraving, before the race moved to Bellville in 1992 and 1993, where two UCT students, Terri-Lee Bedford and Jenny Bam, brought the trophy back ‘home’ in successive years.

The race moved for the last time in 1994, appropriately back to the UCT Athletics Clubhouse at the Oval on middle campus, from where Merrilyn spent considerable time training and hosting club social functions. Leading marathon and ultra-marathon athlete, Jowaine Parrot, won the first race run on what has now been established as the traditional, hilly course through Rondebosch and Newlands, winning in 36 min 11 sec.

At the time, the Western Cape boasted one of the world’s best distance athletes in Elana Van Zyl Meyer, who ran the 1995 Merrilyn Smith as the reigning world half marathon champion. Running in the colours of Stellenbosch University athlete, the South African super-star, who had won the 1991 race in Constantia, blitzed to an incredible 32 min 38 sec, not far behind the first male athlete to finish, Makhosonke Fika, in a time which still stands as the course record.

In the early 2000s, the Merrilyn Smith Race become known as the UCT 10km Memorial Run, to embrace the five athletes who had meant so much to the club, but athletes still competed hard for the honour of having their names engraved on the Merrilyn Smith Trophy.

In the last 25 years, runners of the calibre of Renee Scott, Norma Nonkanyana, Rita Toto (double winner), Bulelwa Mtshagi (who won three times), Nomvuyisi Seti (three times winner), Kim Laxton, Tanith Maxwell, Bulelwa Simae (double winner), Lena Lotter, Zintle Xiniwe and Fortunate Chidzivo (the last winner in 2019) have held the trophy aloft.

With the advent of the COVID pandemic, 2020 and 2021 became the first years in which no one competed for the trophy. After three years of waiting, interest is high to see who will next succeed.