Comrades Marathon receives extra security ahead of race
COMRADES Marathon race director Johan van Staden insists that additional security measures are only precautionary ahead of the 88th occasion of the race, to be run from Durban to Pietermaritzburg on Sunday.
Organisers of some high-profile global road races have been forced to introduce additional safety procedures in recent weeks following twin bombings at the Boston Marathon last month, which killed three people and left a further 264 injured.
“It is just a measure. Comrades, over the past 20 years, has had very stringent security measures in place,” Van Staden said yesterday. “It’s just revisiting our systems and making sure we are compliant with the act as it is.
“We’ve stepped things up, but in negotiations with the police services, they made it very clear that from the intelligence they’ve received, there’s absolutely no threat to our event and we can relax.” Community marshalls would assist 652 South African Police Service officials, metro police, Bhejane Security (the official Comrades security partner) and other law-enforcement officials, while police bomb squad personnel would carry out checks at the start and finish.
Van Staden also confirmed that neither of the global governing bodies for road running — the Association of International Marathons and the International Association of Athletics Federations — had ordered additional security for one of the world’s largest ultramarathons. “We haven’t been asked to. It was mainly lot of questions being posted by media that sparked this,” he said.
“We relooked at our systems and everything was adequate. There’s nothing to worry about, so I’m comfortable and I know we will provide a very safe environment.”
Assurances were also given by the Comrades Marathon Association that there would not be a repeat of the drama that emerged after last year’s race, when men’s winner Ludwick Mamabolo tested positive for methylhexaneamine. An inquiry committee later found multiple irregularities in the postrace testing process.
The 36-year-old was eventually cleared of doping charges, 11 months after winning the event, and his name was included among more than 19,000 entries received for this weekend’s 86km race. Sapa