Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 117, April 2019 | Page 17

OPINION
Long training runs offer
some runners more than
shorter weekend races,
in terms of their longer-
term training goals
boy has that now become evident. When I heard that
a regional athletics federation had sent out a notice
warning people not to organise or participate in formal
long runs on the same day as official races, I thought
it was a joke. Then I read the article in Modern Athlete
and I realised we had gone beyond a joke.
Let’s set out some basic principles, and start with
rules in sport. There are three principles which should
be followed when rules are made for any sport. The
primary one is safety: Participants should not be
risking their life or limb merely by taking part. The
second is fair competition: We should all start in the
same place and run the same route and have an
equal chance of winning, or doing what we want to
do. Lastly, and it is a minor consideration, is that rules
should assist in the administration of the sport. For
example, the rulebook in athletics makes provision for
simultaneous entries in track and field events.
Any other purpose behind a rule is not valid.
There is one provision in the IAAF Rules that is
questionable, because it does not fulfil any of the
above considerations, and that is the one which says
that registered athletes may not take part in events
organised outside of the official sport. This rule made
sense when the sport was strictly amateur. Part of
the definition of an amateur is that they did not take
part against professionals, so the rule was a form
of protectionism. Those days are long gone. The
Olympics are no longer amateur and the IAAF has
dropped the word amateur from its name. The only
conceivable need for such a rule would be to help
with controlling doping in sport. Or to protect the IAAF
and its affiliates from competition. can be given exposure, is just absurd. I will also leave
the listening to music debate for another time.
Breakaway Body? Counting the Costs
As we have seen in swimming, and it happened
previously in cricket, there comes a point where the
administrators push things too far and someone
decides to start a rival body. The courts in South
Africa have already ruled in favour of separate bodies
in cycling. How far are we away from that happening
in athletics? Let me motivate why I ask that question.
From being a free and easy sport, athletics, and
road running in particular, has become a minefield
of rules and regulations. If you take part in a road
race in South Africa, you can be disqualified for a
myriad of reasons. Your number may have fallen off.
You may not have your one number correctly placed
over your other number (that still numbs my brain).
I have heard of someone being disqualified for not
wearing the right colour shorts. If you listen to music,
even though you are running a five-hour marathon
and cannot be a prize winner of any kind, you will be
disqualified. It must be frightening being a newcomer
to the sport, not knowing what you are allowed or
not allowed to do.
And how do any of these rules fit into the three
categories I listed? What difference does it make if
you are wearing your number? After all, there is no
accurate database of licence numbers in South Africa,
especially not of the temporary licences. Wearing the
number over the number, so that imaginary sponsors
From being a free and easy sport, athletics,
and road running in particular, has become a
minefield of rules and regulations.
If we move on to the organisers, things get more
complex. Firstly, you have the legal requirements,
which can be onerous. If you know how to navigate
your way through them and to cut your high-risk add-
ons (e.g. do you really need that tent that needs five
more forms completed, or that stage which costs a lot
and gets used for 10 minutes) or the high-cost items
(such as kilometres of fencing when rope could have
worked), then you can minimise costs. Then you have
to deal with the complex domestic road running rules.
The IAAF road running rules are simple and designed
to only cover the essentials for safety and fair
competition. But the local rules run to several pages.
If you don’t follow them, you’ll be fined.
Add to that the fact that the runner gets taxed twice.
They have to pay for a ‘licence,’ that doesn’t really
do much other than recognise that you have paid
your athletics taxes. You don’t even have to agree to
abide by the rules in order to get a temporary licence.
Then in most places the race also pays a race levy to
the local athletics body (often 10% of the entry fee).
Even though the race pays it, it is an indirect tax on
the participant. If you are not a member of a club, you
have no rights other than participation in return for
your tax.
And what does the runner get in return for paying their
entry fee, which in some cases is absurdly high? Very
little, really. Even though it is 2019 you can wait for a
week or two to get your results. There is no guarantee
they are accurate. You may even find out the course
was long or short, negating your time, but you won’t
get a refund. And you could be disqualified on some
minor technicality...
Facing Facts
It’s time the sport woke up and paid attention. The
road running bubble will burst. Races are becoming
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