As in 2017, an athlete from the University of the Western Cape (UWC) won this year's Dagbreek Straatmyl (Street Mile). Ashley Smith completed the race in Victoria Street in Stellenbosch in a good time of 4:08,96. Johan Cronje, who also participated yesterday (Tuesday, March 6, 2018), is however still the only athlete who can boast running a dream mile – a mile in under 4 minutes – at the event.

The Dagbreek Straatmyl forms part of the “Straatmylfees” (Street Mile Festival) which this year had an international flavour to it with the Dutch star athlete Luuk Wagenaar, who also participated. Wagenaar was 5th in a time of 4:13. Second over the finish line was Bruce-Lynn Damons (also UWC) and Deon-Lee Hendrichs (in the colors of Stellenbosch Athletics Club) who came third.

Last year's winner, Duwayne Philander, had to settle for fourth place, while Cronje who is still on the mend after an operation, ran a solid race and was placed in the top 10.

It was already the eighth time that the Straatmylfees was held and again formed part of the Stellenbosch University (SU) Woordfees (Word Fest).

In the Open Women category Yandiswa Shanye was first at the finish in a time of 5:14,64, Daniel Cronje of Kovsies was second in 5:27, 47 and Maties’ Yvonne Steenkamp crossed the line in third place in a time of 5:27,47.

As for the Men’s Open category more than a hundred athletes took to the street. Cheered on by a decent number of spectators, some runners sported some very interesting outfits with Spiderman and Superman also strutting their stuff.

On a more serious note, Sylvin Dirkse - in the colours of the Stellenbosch Athletics Club - won this division in a good time of 4:27, 23.

The number of participants in the PNA Schools Categories also grew well this year with races held for boys and girls in the u.15 and u.19 age groups. New to the programme was a race for veterans – men  and women over 40. Here Max Rupert, who runs for Strand, had the bragging rights in a time of 5:25, 85.

Always popular at the Straatmyl is the skateboarding division, to the best of the organisers' knowledge the only skateboard mile race in South Africa. Here, a “dream mile” was again recorded with Ben Fish who was crowned king in a time of 3: 42,44.

Francois Fouché, the main organiser, said he is very impressed with the growth in the number of participants in all the categories and is particularly excited about the Masters Division which has the potential to show great growth. “With the Commonwealth Games taking place in April, the South African Championships was shifted and, unfortunately, several top athletes could not participate this year, but we are looking forward to seeing an even bigger group of athletes taking part in next year’s event.”

The first Dagbreek Straatmyl was held in 2011 in honour of Maties alumnus De Villiers Lamprecht. He was the first South African athlete to run a dream mile (the mile in under four minutes) – a distance of 1 609 m. The historic race took place on 13 November 1964 at Coetzenberg Stadium in Stellenbosch. De Villiers was a resident at Dagbreek Men's Residence at the time.

Sponsors included Puma, PNA, ASLA, Submerged Industrial, Niva, the VDM Group, Oak Stadium and the SU Alumni Office. Refreshments were provided by Coke.

Photos: Digital Image Warehouse