Comrades cancelled, best in the long run
• Runners bitterly disappointed but some relieved after battling to train during the lockdown
The Comrades Marathon has been cancelled for the first time since World War 2.
Athletics SA president Aleck Skhosana said the decision to cancel is to protect the health of all concerned because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Cancelling what would have been the 95th edition of the Comrades Marathon was a long and arduous decision to make‚” said Skhosana. “With the race’s rich history‚ its powerful nationbuilding attributes and contribution towards social cohesion‚ as well as its immense economic impact‚ it would have been premature to rush into an outright cancellation sooner.”
SA entrants will not have their entry fee of R600 refunded while foreign athletes will have the option of deferring their fee (R1,500) to 2021 or 2020.
Organisers said the ultramarathon faced a similar dilemma 80 years ago but a lastminute decision was taken to stage the 20th edition even though World War 2 had started two months earlier. Despite the withdrawal of many runners who had been mobilised for the war effort in 1940‚ the race went ahead with 23 starters and 10 crossing the finishing line.
The following year the race was cancelled and remained so for the duration of the war until 1945.
The cancellation means the 2021 race will now be the 47th down run and will coincide with celebrations of the centenary of the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA)‚ which was founded on May 24 1921.
“It’s very disappointing, but there was no other way,” said Nick Bester, national manager of the Nedbank Running Club whose athletes, Edward Mothibi and Gerda Steyn, won the 2019 Comrades. “Postponing it till later in the year wouldn’t have worked as the weather is too hot then.
“It’s a pity, for our top runners, the Comrades can be a big pay day for them.”
The cancellation means Mothibi and Steyn will be champions for another year, but as Bester pointed out it is 12 months down the drain.
“Runners spend most of the year building up to the next Comrades… it’s the biggest ultramarathon in the world.”
Cape Town runner Lynn Etheridge, who had entered to run her fifth Comrades, accepted the situation. “I’m bitterly disappointed after all the training, but on the other hand a bit relieved because with the lockdown it was difficult to train on your own.
“Also there have been no events to test yourself in a race situation and get used to running with people all around you. It’s probably best in the long run that it has been cancelled,” she said.
CMA chair Cheryl Winn said she had hoped the race would be postponed to September but with Covid-19 expected to peak in SA in the coming months‚ the organisation was left with no option.
Winn reassured runners that the CMA will deal with the roughly 2,500 foreign and 25‚000 SA entries received for the 2020 Comrades Marathon as follows:
SA entrants (including the 485 who entered during the recent substitution period) will not be refunded their entry fee. They will, however, receive a T-shirt, goody bag and Comrades badge and flash.
Foreign runners will have their entries deferred to 2021 or 2022 or they will have the option of substituting their 2020 entry to 2021.
Runners who completed their first Comrades on the 2019 up run will qualify for the back-toback medal upon completion of the 2021 down run.
“Sad as it is‚ we can now turn our focus towards the staging of our centenary celebrations next year,” said Winn.
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