Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 119, June 2019 | Page 46

OUT OF THE By BOX Norrie Williamson TIME FOR A NEW APPROACH Over the history of the Comrades Marathon, the size of the field has grown immensely, and can be expected to increase further for the 2021 centenary race and the 100 th edition of the race in 2025. This has resulted in numerous changes to the race rules in the past, and now may need more rules put in place, in particular regarding cut-off times and pacesetting buses. women’s winner, Elizabeth Cavanagh, was beaten to the line by Lettie van Zyl, one of the 168 entrants who had been refused by the selection criteria. Rapid Growth It is worth remembering that in those days there were no official refreshment tables, but rather each runner had one or more ‘seconds’ on the route, travelling by car or motorbike. The 1500 cap was soon dropped, and by 1981 the field had grown to break 5000 entrants for the first time, and thus water tables were introduced to replace the traditional mobile seconds, with very strict ‘stand and hand’ seconding rules. I n its inaugural race in 1921, just 34 runners took on the 90km Comrades Marathon journey of mostly dirt road from ‘Maritzburg to Durban. Numbers continued to grow, and in 1927 the advent of tar roads, and more traffic, contributed to the reduction of the cut-off to 11 hours. The first sign of ‘overload’ of runners came in 1968, when a halfway cut-off, fondly referred to as the ‘Chopper,’ was introduced. It’s purpose was to reduce the time helpers had to stay out there, and disruption to traffic on the road, but was lenient at 6 hours 30 minutes for the 11-hour final cut-off. Clearly anyone not making that cut-off would not make the finish! A few years later it was reduced to a more logical six hours, and only many years later to 5:30. of colour and to women, which meant that while on one hand the field was restricted in growth by qualification, the potential numbers were significantly increased by the acceptance of new runners. In fact, 168 more entries were received than the allocation, which on the day created an anomaly. The official By 1988, the field had grown to 10,000 runners. Typically, in this era between 7% and10% would earn a silver medal with a sub-7:30 finishing time. Then the millennium saw the introduction of a once-off 12-hour cut-off, and entries jumped to 24,000, but there were numerous concerns for safety on the heavily congested roads. Nevertheless, the current 12-hour cut-off was reinstated in 2003 and numbers lining up on the day have consistently been in the 13,000 to 16,000 range, with between 11,000 and 13,000 finishing. The number of finishers in the sub-11:00 bracket have been similar to the hay-days of the 1980’s, with the mass The consistent growth in the race field continued, to the extent that in 1975 a qualification requirement was introduced for the first time. This had nothing to do with medical or health reasons, but rather was an attempt to be seen to take action on restricting numbers and time on the road, in order that the authorities would not be forced to act. The condition of entry had a two-pronged approach for the first year: Runners required a 4:30 marathon to qualify, and only 1500 entrants who qualified would be accepted. There was a certain irony to this, as 1975 was also the year that the race was opened to both runners 46 ISSUE 119 JUNE 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za Qualification Criteria