Is Comrades running into a dead end?

The Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) was widely criticised for not making a call regarding the running of this year’s race during its meeting on 16 March, but its hesitance might still turn out to be a masterstroke.

Even though President Cyril Ramaphosa had already declared a National State of Disaster at that time due to the coronavirus outbreak and all athletic activities were suspended for 30 days, the true magnitude of the pandemic was still to come with the encouraging of social distancing, workers advised to start working from home, international and domestic travel banned, schools closing earlier and then ultimately, the national lockdown with prohibited physical training outside your property.

The CMA made it clear that it would closely monitor the situation and make a call during their next meeting on 17 April.

CMA Chairperson Cheryl Winn reiterated that in the organisation’s monthly newsletter on Wednesday.

Firstly, Winn confirmed what has become blatantly obvious – that it’s highly unlikely the race will go ahead on 14 June.

Secondly, she makes it very clear that the CMA has every intention of still staging the race in 2020, stating that cancellation for the first time since World War II is highly unlikely.

Then thirdly, and most importantly, Winn provides a timeframe to the postponement, saying that 4 October is the latest possible date for the race to take place due to climatic conditions.

Depending on how quickly restrictions relax, having the best part of six months to play with sounds much longer than it actually is.

Especially when taking into account that while runners can still train on their own and in smaller groups and maintain social distancing, it becomes almost impossible to maintain these restrictions in the larger groups.

This would have been unavoidable during the dozens of postponed marathons which thousands of entrants would still have relied on to qualify for the Comrades.

And even if you stage these races without any spectators, a large majority of runners themselves travel to and from the venues in
large masses, meaning it would be crucial for travelling restrictions to have been relaxed, not only by 4 October, but long before then.

The only way that can happen is for the lockdown to be lifted as soon as possible so the knock-on effect can run its course.

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