Shorter distance races need to close the gap on Comrades prize purse

With the Comrades Marathon having announced a massive prize purse for this year’s race, it is great news for the country’s top ultra-distance runners, but it will further raise existing concerns about how it affects athletes who compete over shorter distances.

The Comrades Marathon Association has revealed the total purse for the annual race in KwaZulu-Natal on 11 June will be R4.31 million – nearly double what was offered last year – including R500,000 for the men’s and women’s winners and R500,000 record bonuses.

While this is obviously fantastic for athletes who make a living from ultra-distance events, however, it could be damaging to South African road running and other race organisers are going to need to find a way to raise their purses in order to incentivise shorter distance runners.

Lucrative prizes

There are multiple races around the country which offer lucrative prizes, including five- or six-figure cheques for the winners of their events, but Comrades is the only race in SA that puts seven figures on the line for their champions.

For the sake of the sport, it’s best that runners don’t move up in distance too early in their careers as it creates a gap over distances ranging from 10km to 42km, and it affects the nation’s performances at World Championships and Olympic Games.

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Of course, athletes can’t be blamed if they step up to ultra-distances in order to chase massive prize purses, so the only way to keep this from happening is for other races to increase the cash prizes on offer in 10km, 21km and 42km contests.

It’s not as easy as that, and the Comrades organisers are able to offer what they do because the race is popular enough that they can charge more in entry fees and attract more sponsors.

It can be done

So it’s asking a lot to expect other events to match what they can offer, but the more they can provide younger athletes over shorter distances, the better it will be for the sport.

This will require better marketing, more media coverage and bigger sponsorships, so there needs to be an all-round effort from multiple sectors.

What Comrades has shown, however, is that it can be done. Hopefully other races can rise to meet the standard which the historic race has set.