Elite road runners wasting effort and throwing away deserved rewards

Sometimes when athletes are disqualified from races for basic rule violations, it feels like they’ve been treated a little unfairly. Most of the time, however, they can only really blame themselves.

On Sunday, Mathews Leeto became the latest casualty among a growing list of road runners who have been disqualified after winning major South African races in recent years.

Leeto crossed the line first at the Race to Gender Equality at Marks Park, but while he retained his place in the open race results, he was not eligible for the SA 10km title or the prize money offered to the national champion as he was not wearing a permanent Athletics South Africa licence number.

Most frustrating, however, was the revelation from race referees afterwards that he would not have been disqualified had his Athletics Central North West (ACNW) team asked for special permission for Leeto to run in a temporary licence, which would have been granted.

But this is not the first time athletes have been scratched from results for race number violations at local races, which has become a persistent issue.

At the 2022 Durban International Marathon, Zimbabwean athlete Isaac Mpofu was disqualified for a temporary licence rule violation, as he did not have a second number pinned to the back of his vest.

Back in 2017, at the Durban International Marathon and the Nelson Mandela Bay Half-Marathon, three podium finishers were also disqualified for not wearing the correct licence numbers or race numbers.

Who to blame?

In most instances it’s hard to point fingers at the referees for ensuring everyone is following regulations. Without sufficient justification for their failure to read the rules in advance, the fault has to be directed towards either the athletes or their team managers, or both.

Either way, it is never pleasant to see race winners being disqualified for not having the correct numbers displayed on their vests at the finish.

When they’ve put in all the hard work, giving the rewards away over issues which can be easily avoided seems like a tremendous waste of effort, and it happens too often.

Let’s hope athletes and managers learn from the mistakes of others and we don’t see it again.