The sudden passing on Sunday 5 October of Cheryl Winn, the ‘Matriarch of the Comrades Marathon’, comes as a massive blow not only to the Comrades Marathon Association, which she served tirelessly for more than thirty years, but also to the global family of ultra-distance runners.
Few, if any, have contributed as much to distance running in South Africa, serving on many committees and boards, including at club level with her former Johannesburg Club, Pirates, the South African Road Runners Association and the Comrades Marathon Association.
But Winn is likely to be primarily remembered for her long relationship with the Comrades Marathon and she remains the only person ever to have won the Comrades Marathon and served as the Chairperson of its Board.
She served the Comrades Marathon Association for 38 years in various capacities and would have been due for her ‘Quadruple Green Name’ in the Comrades Centenary year of 2027 – an award for voluntary service to the event which parallels the Green Number awards for completing Comrades Marathon races.
CMA Chairperson Mqondisi Ngcobo, whom Winn mentored on the board for several years as her successor, expressed a sense of enormous loss, both personally and as an organisation. “Cheryl’s passing is a great loss not only to the CMA, but to the whole athletics family,” he said yesterday.
“She dedicated her life from 1978 to the service of the sport of athletics, and the Comrades Marathon in particular. Cheryl’s legacy in this 104-year-old ultra marathon is unparalleled, and her passing is a devastating loss to the CMA family. She remains the Comrades Marathon’s Matriarch.’
Ngcobo went on to recount a number of his personal memories of Winn, who gave her life to road running, Ngcobo said. “She had time for all people, irrespective of their backgrounds, and had a gift of getting people to talk with one another. She had a gift in uniting her team.
“As an administrator, she was always meticulous in her work, with great attention to detail. She was a highly organised individual.
“Cheryl faced significant challenges during her time in office but she always was able to bring conflicting sides together to reach agreement. And last year, during the so-called ‘Vanilla Gate’ saga, she was instrumental in finding a way forward by bringing people together. Now that’s behind us and we’re in a good space – that was Cheryl’s legacy.”
Ngcobo admitted the Winn taught him everything he knew about the governance of the Comrades. “When I joined as a board member in 20i6, she embraced me. I think she saw something in me linked to the future leadership of Comrades. She was patient and became a leader, a mentor and a friend to me.
“I served on the Comrades Marathon Association Board with Cheryl as Chair between 2016 and 2017 and I became vice-chair in 2018 under her leadership. Two years later Cheryl helped to steer us through COVID and we owe our current strength in governance and financially to her.
“During COVID, I was on the phone with her at least three times a day. I recall in that year Cheryl presenting to the Board her plan to introduce the Isavel Roche-Kelly and Robert Mtshali medals. Her meticulous presentation and strong institutional memory led to a unanimous decision to approve the medals.
“Fortunately, Cheryl continued to serve on various committees even once she stepped down from the Board and provided valuable input on the Finance and Marketing Committees as well as the Elders Committee.
“Tomorrow (Wednesday 8 October) we are launching next year’s race, but are feeling shattered and shocked – we have lost the Matriarch of the Comrades Marathon Association. We haven’t discussed it yet, but we must put our minds together to find some way to honour her during the Comrades Centenary (in 2027).”
As a runner, Winn established herself as one of South Africa’s leading ultra-distance athletes in the 1980s.
Born in the USA, Winn came to South Africa in the early 1970s following her university years, and began her more serious running career in 1977, when she linked up with Johannesburg club runners training for the Comrades Marathon.
She began her long relationship with the Comrades the following year, completing the race as a novice in an impressive 9hr 09min, which suggested that with more training she could become the first woman ever to run a silver medal time at Comrades – under 7 hr 30 min.
She achieved that goal two years later, clocking 7hr 22 min for the 1980 down run but found a young UCT student named Isavel Roche-Kelly had beaten her to the finish by just three minutes. The following year Roche-Kelly shot the lights out, clocking 6hr 44min for the up run, with Winn again the only other athlete to earn a silver medal.
“Isavel and I were both sponsored by Nike and we became close friends as well as competitors,” Winn recalled last year. “She was by far the most talented ultra-runner in the country in the early 80s.”
Perhaps so, but Winn herself was the only other athlete in the country who could compete with her over that distance.
Winn was at her running peak in 1982 and her second place behind Beverley Malan at the Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town in April proved a portend for that year’s Comrades, where she set a record for the ‘Down’ race of 7h04 in taking the win.
Winn went on to record six top-five finishes at Comrades, standing on the podium on three occasions.
As impressive was her career as an athlete, it was as an administrator that Winn realised her true potential. Many attributed her late husband Mick Winn’s impressive service as Chairperson of both Comrades Marathon Association and SA Road Runners Association (SARRA) to his wife’s strong administrative support.
Winn took up the reigns as General Secretary of SARRA in the mid-80s and it was no coincidence that the sport was raised to new levels during this period, which celebrated some of the finest achievements in the history of South African road running.
Winn was at the coal face of South African road running at the time. When asked a few years ago to list her career highlights in the sport, Winn rated being a witness to Ernest Seleke becoming the first South African to break 2:10 for the marathon, in Port Elizabeth in 1984, and Zithulele Sinqe and Willie Mtolo clocking 2:08:04 and 2:08:10 respectively at the same venue two years later as two of her best days.
But the ‘most electric sporting experience of my life’, said Winn, was being on the finish line when Mathews Temane broke the world half marathon record in East London in 1987, clocking 60:11, with Sinqe credited with the same time.
Of course, Winn also spoke of many golden Comrades moments, but first and foremost were her lifelong friendships and the collaborative and collegial relationships she have experienced at all levels.
She elaborated that “I have been blessed to have worked with literally hundreds of passionate, selfless, diligent, presidents, chairmen, secretaries, administrators, organisers, officials, coaches and enthusiastic volunteers all over South Africa and it has enriched my life and my personal character immensely.”
Ngobo reached out to Winn’s family. “On behalf of the CMA Board, staff, race organising committee, our elders, sponsors, partners and participants, we pass our deepest condolences to the Winn family and wish you strength as you deal with this tragic loss. May her beautiful soul rest in peace.”
Winn leaves three sons and their families. She had been enjoying time with her youngest son and grandson in the Drakensberg – a favourite getaway – and indulging in her passion for landscape photography when she slipped and fell.
