Exciting changes are in the pipeline for the Comrades Marathon in coming years

IT IS CLEAR that while the Olympic Games may be the pinnacle of many sports, for others life has gone on as normal this week.

There is a cricket Test in Durban, the Currie Cup is in full swing and rugby Tests were played yesterday, not to mention a Formula One Grand Prix and most of the major football leagues in Europe back in full swing too.

Life doesn’t stop for our top road runners either, with the official launch this week of next year’s Comrades Marathon marking the start of preparations for the likes of Charne Bosman and David Gatebe.

As Bosman pointed out, just like US golf has the Masters, British tennis has Wimbledon and the French the Tour de France cycle race, so, too, can the Comrades Marathon be considered the iconic road running event on the South African sports calendar.

Next year’s race will be held on June 4, before taking a permanent date on the calendar as the second Sunday of June.

The 92nd race is an up run which will start, as usual, outside the Durban City Hall, but will finish at the Scottsville racetrack rather than the traditional Jan Smuts/Harry Gwala Stadium, which can no longer cope with the logistics of 20 000 runners, a similar number of supporters and at least 10 000 vehicles.

Scottsville offers much better access and egress, while runners will also benefit from seeing the 87.5km route be reduced by around 200m ... for the top athletes chasing records and the “fish and chips” backmarkers, this is something to cheer about.

First prize for men and women is R425 000, an increase of around 6% on 2016, and the total prize purse is just over R3.8 million.

The campaign for the 2017 race is being dubbed “Zinikele – It takes all of you”, in recognition of the full commitment required to complete the Ultimate Human Race.

Chatting to race director Rowyn James afterwards, he revealed that there were some exciting plans for the future of the race, including negotiating with the eThekwini Metro to move the finish to the Moses Mabhida stadium at some stage.

This is particularly important, given the major anniversaries that the race is close to reaching, including 2021 being the the 100th anniversay of the first event, while the 100th running of the event will occur a few years thereafter (the race was not held from 1941-45 because of the Second World War).

Entries open on September 1 and closes once the cap of 20 000 has been reached. Fees for 2017 are: South Africa: R460; rest of Africa: R770; International: R2 650.

Local runners will receive an “Early bird” discount of R40 off if their entry is received before September 30.

All runners who have completed 25 or more Comrades receive complimentary entry.

Enter online at comrades.com; by posting a completed entry form with proof of payment to the CMA Office in Pietermaritzburg, PO Box 100621, Scottsville, 3209; or by hand at Comrades House, 18 Connaught Road in Pietermaritzburg.

The qualifying window opens on August 27 and closes on May 1.

Ammies in action

The Elan KZN Amateur Championship tees off at Margate from Wednesday, and sees many of the country’s top golfers from the unpaid ranks attempting to pick up valuable national ranking points.

KwaZulu-Natal’s top players are in action as they look to gauge their readiness for next month’s inter-provincial tournament.

Winners of this tournament traditionally go on to greater things if they turn professional – Haydn Porteous, Trevor Fisher and Zander Lombard being prime examples.

There are two rounds of strokeplay qualifying before the matchplay begins.

07:00 Stephen du Plessis, Nico du Buisson, Patric Dowling; 07:08 Dylan Mostert, Dylan Kok, Aneel Kallan; 07:16 Mathew Hands, Deon Germishuys, Andre van Heerden; 07:24 Luke Mayo, Richard Joubert, Gavin Sole; 07:32 Jens Hillerman, Gregory McKay, Clayton Mansfield; 07:40 Byron Coetzee, Jordan Burnard, Tristan Brice; 07:48 Eric Wowor, Pierre Schmidt, Paul Rodrigues; 07:56 Emilio Pera, James Pennington, Steven le Roux; 11:00 Lwazi Gqira, Allan Lones, Jason Broomhead, 11:08 Marc van Deventer, Karl Lehmacher, Siyanda Mwandla; 11:16 Kyle Klopper, Aneurin Gounden, Brandon Gildenhuys; 11:24 Christian Basson, Quintin Wilsnach, Karabo Mokoena; 11:32 Neswill Croy, Keagan Thomas, Carlo O’Reilly; 11:40 Luca Filippi, Louis Albertse, Malcolm Mitchell; 11:48 Matt Saulez, Darin de Smidt, Keelan Africa; 11:56 Angus Ellis-Cole, Kyle McClatchie, Albert Venter

07:08 Thabang Tlou, Douglas Sima, Ismareel Randeree; 07:16 Daniel Baguma, Lisanthan Moodley, Robert Mavundla; 07:24 Tian Swart, Sean Baker, Sebastian Terblanche; 07:32 Adam Sheldrake, Andrew Plint, Michael Pienaar; 07:40 Liam McIlroy, Michael Kok, Liam Cloete; 07:48 Nicholas Watson, Graeme Limper, NJ van der Walt; 07:56 Mohit Mediratta, Tyrone Gibb, Arno van Heerden; 11:00 Sidney Shingange, Cameron Giovannoni, Thabiso Magwaza; 11:08 Gregory Waterman, Dylan Underwood, Walter Malevu; 11:16 Shaydon Johnson, Joshua Gilson, Samuel Gouma; 11:24 10 Jason Gilliver, Brandon Fisher, Lindani Mthiyane; 11:32 Christopher van der Merwe, Liam Labuschagne, Dalan Tait; 11:40 Daniel Joubert, Zabastian de Jager, Graham Fabricius; 11:48 Jason Ackerman, Fanie Wolmarans, Dave Watson; 11:56 Keegan Steyn, Jason Rossiter, David Nortje.