↵ BROWSE ALL +65 ATHLETES / Matthews Temane
South Africa’s Matthews Temane had a phenomenal professional career, which included breaking the world record over half marathon distance in 1987, in a time of 1:00:11. However Matthews hadn’t always aspired to be the runner he eventually became, and in fact throughout his junior ages he trained to become a footballer. Through commuting to school and football practices during childhood and teenage years, it became regular to cover a distance of 15km jogging to and from his home per day. This undoubted developed his running ability from an early age. Eventually at the age of 21, his family (who had over the years saw his talent for running blossom) encouraged him to formally shift focus to the sport. He ability immediately took off, and soon after as a senior he became national champion in the majority of events between 1500m-21km on the track, as well as cross-country and road titles. His personal bests of the following respective distances were:
- Mile: 3:55.4
- 5000m: 13:25.2
- 10km: 28:29 (28:03 unofficially)
- Half Marathon: 1:00:11
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