Whoever calibrated devices must be clocked

When it was first launched, a technical blunder resulted in a wobbly inaugural edition, but in just two years the FNB 10km CitySurfRun has recovered from any damage to its public image and cemented its place as one of South Africa’s most exciting road races.

One error may not seem like much of an issue, but it was a doozy, and it’s the kind of silly flop which can shatter the reputation of a new event.

In 2017, when pre-race favourite Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda stormed over the line, the clock above the finish line suggested he had become only the second athlete in history to dip under 27 minutes over the 10km distance.

With a quality field competing on a flat route in Durban, all chasing lucrative prize money, the race had real potential from the start, but nobody expected such a spectacular time.

And any suspicions were soon justified when it was revealed that there had been a problem with the clock and Cheptegei’s official time was around half-a-minute slower than the device had suggested.

To be fair, providing race spectators with faulty times is somewhat of a speciality in South African athletics, and the clocks at certain stadiums are considered so unreliable they may as well not be used at all.

In some instances, officials have accepted record times which have later been scratched when it has been discovered that clocks have not been calibrated properly, and on other occasions it has been revealed that electronic clocks have been attached to hand timing devices.

This results in a frustrating situation for local journalists, who can no longer report on events live unless posts on social media are accompanied by lengthy explanations regarding unofficial times.

We now have to wait for the official results to be released before any news can be shared, and at some events that can take hours.

Last week, when Kenesisa Bekele won the Berlin Marathon, his time flashed up on the screen the moment he crossed the line.

There were no changes later made to his official time and there were no excuses offered about times being potentially wrong until they’re signed off by referees.

The timing devices were calibrated correctly and the clock on the screen was spot-on.

That’s how clocks work. When they’re not broken, they display the correct time, and aside from rounding off fractions, any timing device used at any athletics event should be completely reliable.

Granted, unless records are being broken, poorly calibrated sideline clocks are not going to ruin anyone’s day.

But if the sport in SA is going to be respected internationally, there is a certain standard that needs to be met, so it was disappointing to see such a glaring error at an event which displayed tremendous promise.

Fortunately, aside from that incident, the CitySurfRun has delivered in terms of elite performances, and tomorrow’s third edition will carry IAAF Bronze Label status.

The course records set by Cheptegei (27:16) and Stella Chesang (31:14) last year are the fastest times ever run in Africa, and with a strong foreign lineup again pushing the local elite, quick times are expected once more.

As a mass event which has the potential to become one of the most popular road races on the global circuit, the CitySurfRun organisers have proved they can make mistakes.

Crucially, however, they’ve also shown they can fix their blunders, and though they weren’t delighted with the negative coverage they got in 2017, they made the effort to ensure there was no repeat last year.

So, with all the necessary ingredients already in the bowl, as long as they don’t continue to make unnecessary blunders, it seems they are working with a winning formula in the early stages of the event’s development.

Let’s just hope the timing device works on their oven. Nobody likes burnt cake.