Sydney Maree
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Sydney Maree (b. 1956) is a former middle distance runner who competed at the international level in the 1980s. He was born in South Africa, in the dusty mining town of Cullinan, east of Pretoria, but ran for the United States.
Maree's greatest success came in August 1983 when he broke Steve Ovett's world record over 1500 m at a meeting in Cologne. Maree clocked 3:31.24 min. Two years later, Maree broke the 3:30 min-barrier when he set a new US record of 3:29.77 min. However, this was not a world record as a few weeks before Steve Cram and Said Aouita had already run 3:29.67 and 3:29.71 min respectively. Maree was an excellent 5000 m runner, too. In Oslo in 1985 he set a new US record at 13:01.15 min. finishing just behind Aouita who set a world record.