Top African athletes who has contributed to their nation has been recognised for their efforts by The Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) and they were inducted into the first ever African Athletics Hall of Fame

The induction was held at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on May 1st where it was on the same day as the eve of the opening of the 16th African Athletics Championships

Thirty five South Africans athletes were inducted and among those three was from athletics.

They were Josiah Thugwane, Marius Corbett and Jacques Freitag

Josiah Thugwane

Olympic marathon champion and South Africa’s first black Olympic gold medal-winner at the Atlanta 1996 Olympics. Josiah Thugwane was born in the small town of Bethal. A former soccer player, the 5’2″ and 99 lbs, began running marathons in 1990 at the age of 19 as a way to support his family. Thugwane run twice a day, six days a week, sometimes as far as 35 kilometres.

Thugwane get out for their first session at 6am to give them time to recover for another session in the late afternoon. They run on flat, dirt roads, the surface fast but kind to the legs. They run at altitude. They run in the heat of a South African summer. And they run very fast. Thugwane covered 35km in 2hr 03min for a first run of the day

Marius Corbett

A South African javelin thrower who won a surprise gold medal at the 1997 World Championships in Athletics, with an improved personal best with 4.50 meters during the contest. The following year he threw 88.75 meters to win the 1998 Commonwealth Games. That result still stands as the current African record.

A back injury prevented Corbett from competing at both the 2000 Olympic Games and 2001 World Championships and also restricted his performances in both those seasons. Injuries subsequently derailed the big man’s career, but nowadays he remains in the public eye playing lock for the Leopards in South African provincial rugby

Jacques Freitag

A lanky high jumper at 2.04 m and weighs 87 kg. High jumping runs in his family as his mother Hendrina Pieters, was a 1973 a South African high jump champion with PB 1.74m.

Freitag is the first athlete to win gold medals at the IAAF Senior (2003), Junior (2000) and Youth Championships (1999). Freitag has a personal best of 2.38 m set in Oudtshoorn, South Africa 2005. He has broken South African high jump record seven times