Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 109, Aug 2018 | Page 23

OUT OF
THE By BOX
Norrie Williamson
Brought to you by B4 Play Products
WHEN TWO WORLDS COLLIDE
South African road running has a few marked differences to the rest of the world, and we need to adapt some of our
traditional practices in order to fit in with global norms and standards.
A
s I wrote last month, South African athletics developed a strong road
running focus during the sporting isolation and Running Boom years,
founded in one of the strongest club structures in the world. In contrast,
the primary focus internationally remained on track and field, with cross country
a secondary consideration, and road running falling into third place. Ultra-running
was even further down the pecking order, even with the International Association
of Ultra-running (IAU) conceived in 1984. Around that time, however, the media
coverage and the charismatic impact of Bruce Fordyce saw Comrades numbers in
SA climb over 8000, while the UK’s equivalent, the London to Brighton Ultra, was
lucky to have 150 entries!
The reality is that little impact has been felt on domestic events since South Africa’s
readmission in 1992. In fact, some international rules were simply ignored, either
through ignorance or for convenience. However, over the past few years there has
been a gradual introduction of events with international status, such as the small
number of AIMS members, including the Maritzburg Marathon, Mandela Marathon,
Two Oceans and Comrades, the application for IAAF Label by the Cape Town
Marathon, and the recruitment of elite fields for the FNB Run Your City Series. This
has highlighted some key differences as the two worlds of road running evolution
were forced to merge.
Inevitably, the 2018 rewrite of domestic rules in SA, the greater global emphasis on
running by the IAAF, and the hope of increased international races on home soil,
has led to some problems, because compliance with international rules is no longer
just an option. That said, in some areas the South African evolution is actually more
advanced, and needs to be kept, even promoted internationally. Some of our South
African innovations include:
• Age category tags: This allows every runner to see who he/she is racing
against, particularly when some runners appear younger or older than their age.
This rule is only seen internationally in the World Masters handbook.
• ASA license numbers: Sometimes seen as a burden, but in reality light years
ahead of their time. This became the runners’ membership card, and meant that
no race organiser needed to provide numbers to entrants, which continues to save
money for organisers, particularly those with small fields where electronic timing is
not viable.
(The rapid growth in event-specific race numbers in recent years has partly been
driven by chip timing companies, but also by organisers wanting to give their
sponsors more exposure, and thus these numbers have become controversial.
However the use of foot-mounted chips, or even simply having the bib-mounted
chip provided on a small piece of Tyvek below the ASA license is all that is
necessary for the system to work.)
• Water/drinks packaging: SA also led the way in this field, when plastic
sachets were introduced in the late 1980’s in KZN. The alternatives on offer
around the world remain bottles or cups, many of which promote a wastage of
water. (Although single-use plastic has to be reduced and replaced, and the next
evolution must be more planet-friendly packaging, a viable replacement has yet to
be found.)
WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE
On the counter side, two international rules/standards have impacted on previous
domestically accepted protocol. The first requires competitors to limit the branding
on their running gear to the international sta