Johan Fourie (born December 2, 1959 in
Springs) is a South African
middle-distance athlete who was one of the world's leading 1500m/mile exponents in the 1980s but was prevented from competing internationally in his prime due to the sporting
sanctions imposed on South Africa in condemnation of the policy of
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
.
Fourie's best 1500m performance was 3:33.87, a time recorded at the SA Championships in
in 1987 without significant opposition or
pacemakers
An artificial cardiac pacemaker (or artificial pacemaker, so as not to be confused with the natural cardiac pacemaker) or pacemaker is a medical device that generates electrical impulses delivered by electrodes to the chambers of the heart eit ...
and his best mile time was 3:50.82 also recorded in 1987. During the mid-1980s he trained with Swiss Pierre Délèze in Europe. Délèze, who defeated
Sebastian Coe over 1500m in
Zurich in 1985, believed that Fourie was capable of running a sub 3:30 1500m, given the appropriate race conditions
[Mayer (2009) "Van Deventer a Bright Ray of Sunshine" ''2009 PUK South African Athletics Annual'', p. 12./>]
He was raised in
Vereeniging
Vereeniging () is a town located in the south of Gauteng province, South Africa, situated where the Klip River empties into the northern loop of the Vaal River. It is also one of the constituent parts of the Vaal Triangle region and was formerly s ...
in
Gauteng Province
Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'.
Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only 1 ...
where he attended school and won his first national 1500m in 1979 while still a junior.
Prevented from competing on international stage, he nevertheless managed to entertain athletics followers in the 1980s which has been characterised as a golden age of South African middle and long distance running. Apart from running more than 50 sub-four miles, he also ran two sub-four miles in one hour and in 1984 was awarded the Beinart award by the
South African Athletics Statisticians for being the top ranked South African athlete in the world in 1983.
[''1984 South African Athletics Annual'']
Personal life
Johan married 400m distance Springbok athlete Marinda Fourie in 1989. They have two children, Rico Fourie and Shan Fourie. Johan and his family currently live in
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
. He and his wife coach "The Dogsquad"
athletics group.
References
1959 births
Living people
People from Vereeniging
South African male middle-distance runners
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