Chance to remember former distance-running great, Lindsay Weight, in the annual UCT Memorial Race

Road runners have an ideal opportunity to enjoy a recovery run after the Two Oceans Marathon or Half Marathon this past weekend, while remembering and celebrating one of the Two Oceans greats, at the annual UCT 10km Memorial Race, which takes place on Sunday 3 May.

One of the most popular short races on the WP Athletics Calendar, the UCT 10km Memorial Race, run on a testing but scenic course from the university campus, remembers and celebrates the lives and careers of three of the university’s leading distance runners, Merrilyn Smith, Isavel Roche Kelly and Lindsay Weight.

This year’s race profiles Weight, who finished in the top ten of the Two Oceans Marathon on six occasions, twice as runner-up, in addition to winning the Comrades Marathon on two occasions.

When Weight, who obtained a doctorate in medical science at the University of Cape Town, died at her Hout Bay home in September 2006, aged 44, her loss was felt deeply by the thousands whose lives she had touched.

Weight was admired and loved by many – students from her popular course in the Human Biology Department, those who had enjoyed her on-point television and radio commentary or pithy columns in running magazines, or simply those whom she offered a word of encouragement as she passed them along the way in a race.

She was always eager to share what she knew about running to the young members of the athletics club at UCT, and beyond.

Weight was a power-house at the UCT Athletics Club. She was just one of three members of the club to have won the Comrades Marathon and, like Isavel Roche-Kelly, she achieved that honour twice.

In her second victory in 1984, she became the first woman to break the seven-hour barrier for the down run (Roche-Kelly had done so on the up run in 1981), smashing that record by just over 18 minutes to win in a time of 6:46:35. In total, she won 11 Comrades medals, including six golds and five bronze medals.

Weight also boasted an impressive record in the Two Oceans Ultra Marathon, having completed 14 ‘Voyages’, ten of them in UCT colours. She finished in the top ten on six occasions, four times on the podium including two runners-up positions with a best time of 3:57:49.

She was a beloved academic, known for her care of her students in the Department of Human Biology, where she contributed to important changes in curriculum in the Faculty of Health Sciences in the early 2000s.

Weight enjoyed all forms of distance running and increasingly raced on trails later in her life. She completed the testing 70km Puffer Race between Cape Point and the Waterfront in 2006, shortly before she passed away.

The first woman home in the UCT Memorial Race will be awarded the coveted Merrilyn Smith trophy, which carries the names of many of South Africa’s leading distance athletes, and a bonus R1500 if her winning time is under 36 minutes. 

Elana Meyer holds the course record, having clocked a remarkable 32:38 for the challenging course in 1995, shortly after she broke the world half marathon record, while Australia-based Aynslee Minnaar, won the last UCT Memorial Race in 2024, two months after representing South Africa at the World Cross Country Championships.

The race forms part of the WPA road running league and runners are encouraged to enter early (https://racepass.com/za/races/uct-memorial-10km-race) as numbers are capped at 2000.  No late entries will be accepted.

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