Maths Batswadi (born 1949), a South African athlete, was the first black athlete to be awarded Springbok Colours, the name then given to South African national sporting colours, after the implementation of the policy of apartheid by the National Party in 1948.
He was born at Dithakong, near Vryburg in the Northern Cape Province, and retired from athletics competition in 1986.
The Germiston Stadium is located at an altitude of 1600 metres above sea-level and the performance is thus noteworthy.
The 1978 National Championships was also significant because it signalled the emergence of Batswadi's namesake, Matthews Motshwarateu, who won the 5000 metres in 14:07.
He won his first national title, the South African men's Cross Country Championships, in Roodepoort in 1975, while he was still working underground in the Western Deep Levels Gold Mine, then the deepest mine in the world.