OPINION: Elite athletes left stranded by Africa’s richest marathon

From the moment the race flyer for the Mpumalanga Marathon was released, eyebrows were raised, with organisers announcing a record prize purse.

There wasn’t much hype in the build-up to the event, which was held in September, and it ended up attracting a little over 400 runners, which is a tiny field for a 42km race offering R1 million to the men’s and women’s winners.

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Aside from the uncertainty around the race (at first many thought the flyer was fake) and the lack of promotion which sponsors would usually expect, the prize money structure was also bizarre, with the winners getting R1 million and the rest of the top 10 finishers sharing a little more than R400,000 combined.

Nonetheless, the race went ahead, and with a massive carrot on the line, some elite athletes turned up hoping for a big pay day.

Taking a gamble

One of those athletes was Ethiopia’s Tadu Nare, a regular contender on South African roads, who gave up a guaranteed $40,000 (R730,000) appearance fee at the Sydney Marathon in the hope that she could earn more in Mpumalanga without having to produce as fast a time as she would have been expected to run in Australia.

On the challenging course, Nare won the women’s race in 2:37:20 and it looked like the gamble had paid off.

It turns out Nare would have been far better off running in Sydney, where she would at least have gotten paid.

Local media have already reported that service providers have not been paid, with sponsors pulling out after organisers failed to register the race as a non-profit with Sars.

And it has now been revealed that the athletes who finished in the top 10 will not be getting the prize money they were promised.

Little more than a scam

The Mpumalanga Marathon started as what seemed like a prank, fizzled into a mediocre race with a lopsided prize purse, and has now seemingly devolved into little more than a scam.

Nare must be absolutely gutted, along with men’s winner Jobo Khatoane of Lesotho.

It’s unclear if there are any avenues they can even follow in an attempt to get their money, but there must be some consequences faced by the Mpumalanga Marathon organisers for dropping their service providers and the elite athletes who took part, some of whom travelled from abroad to chase the massive prize purse.

For one, Nare and Khatoane should be compensated in some way for their efforts. And the powers that be need to ensure the individuals involved in the Mpumalanga Marathon are never allowed to organise a race again.

Making silly decisions about prize money structures and failing to promote an event backed by lucrative sponsorships are shortfalls which they could have improved on moving forward.

Not paying elite athletes is unacceptable, and it should be a death sentence for Africa’s richest marathon, a race that caused more confusion and controversy than it was worth.