Members of Run Alex to participate in all major marathons under one banner

Central Gauteng Athletics (CGA) has approved the application of local runners club, Run Alex to be registered as an official athletics club.

This means that Run Alex members will be able to participate in any marathon, nationally and internationally.

This was after the two-year-old club had appealed the athletics body’s decision to reject its application in October last year. The local runners who train together every Saturday and Sunday were forced to run for different clubs in major competitions because Run Alex was not registered with CGA.

The club chairperson Sphiwe Nkosi said they had appealed CGA’s decision because they did not agree with the reasons stated in the letter of rejection.

“After conducting training runs from January 2018 and introducing running to so many people in Alexandra, in July 2019 members of the #Run Alex training group decided it was time to formalise into a running club,” said Nkosi.

“An application was put through with Central Gauteng Athletics and the team was invited to a presentation on September 10. On 18 October 2019, a rejection letter was received from CGA stating a few reasons why we could not be granted permission as a club.

“We immediately appealed this decision as we did not agree with the reasons provided. On 2 December 2019, the team was invited again by CGA and all the rejection reasons were tackled and the track record of the group was presented, this included all the training runs done, events hosted and financial records.”

Nkosi said on 13 December last year, CGA had informed them that their application had been successful. “This means that our members can register with Athletics South Africa and be allocated permanent running licences that can be used to enter major races like Comrades or even international races.”

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