Posted: December 15, 2004

Athletics: Tough Conditions Expected For RSA Marathon Championships

From David Monti

(c) 2004 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

By Riel Hauman

The South African Marathon Championships will resume in 2005 after a gap of three years. Athletics South Africa (ASA) has announced that the race will take place on February 20 in Durban –-according to critics the worst possible time and venue.

The last SA Marathon was also held in Durban in 2001. After that the country’s major road running sponsor, insurance giant Old Mutual, pulled out and ASA has been unable to find another sponsor since then. The 2005 event will also not have a sponsor, but will be financed through a levy on athletes’ licence numbers –-a decision that has elicited much disapproval. (South Africa has a strong and regimented club system – the majority are strictly road running and not track and field clubs – and every club member has to buy an annual licence number that must be worn in all races. Athletes who do not belong to clubs must buy a “temporary” licence number for each race they participate in; a levy wil also be added to this.)

Of all the coastal venues Durban is certainly the worst city to have a marathon in February, the warmest month of the year. The heat and humidity of the tropical city on South Africa’s east coast make conditions highly unpleasant – if not dangerous for runners – in the period December-March.

The conditions “will be a killer”, one expert said. Bobby McGee, former coach of Colleen de Reuck who lives in Boulder, Colo., said: “I feel so sorry for the athletes; the sport is being strangled to death.”

Prize money for the race is low –-the male and female winners wil pocket only R5000 each (USD 872), with the tenth runner receiving a paltry R500 (USD 87)-– but ASA has named the event as the trial race for the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki. The first two men and women who run sub-2:12 and sub-2:36 in Durban will be selected automatically.

“If, after the SA Marathon Championships, there is still room for more athletes in the Final Team,” ASA said in a media release, “then athletes who achieve [these] qualifying standards in the period 1 August 2004 to 28 March 2005, at any marathon recognised by ASA, will be considered for selection into the Final Team. This will happen entirely at the sole discretion of the Executive Board of ASA.”

ASA has countered criticism about the low prize money by pointing to the time bonuses on offer: R20,000 (USD 3488) for sub-2:12/2:36, going up to R65,000 (USD 11,337) for sub-2:07:30/2:31:30.

Of course, it is highly improbable that even the slowest of these standards will be achieved. Only five men have broken 2:12 inside South Africa in the past ten years (none in the last four), and all these times were run in weather-friendly Cape Town. The closest a woman has come was the 2:36:25 Gwen van Lingen ran in 1999, also in Cape Town.

When the last Championships were held, Ian Syster (in his marathon debut) and Van Lingen won in 2:13:30 and 2:51:59 respectively.

The course designed for the race consists of a downhill first 10 km, dropping 42 metres (barely within the legal limit of 42.195 m between start and finish), followed by three laps of approximately 10 km. The start and finish are approximately 1000m apart.