The 2022 Totalsports Two Oceans Marathon had some 8000 less finishers than the previous edition
5 national park , at the paltry price of a couple of hundred Rands . If there ’ s still space on your calendar , then add a couple of these races to your 2023 plans .
The Great Registration Resignation
The only thing that declined more than Eskom ’ s megawatt output between 2019 and 2022 is the number of South African marathon runners . After a peak of over 131,000 marathon and ultra finishers in 2019 , less than 80,000 crossed the finish line in 2022 – a decline of over 40 %. The drop correlates with the increase in race entry fees of 43 %, and I suspect there may be some causation as well . COVID regulations restricting field sizes in the early part of the year definitely played a part in this equation , but I suspect that COVID kilograms gained during the pandemic , combined with the long-term impact of lockdowns and no races to run , played a much bigger part in the drastic drop !
The Biggest Losers
Two Oceans was by far the biggest loser in 2022 , shedding over 8000 finishers . The 2022 event did not sell out , so my interpretation is that this is a result of runners not being able to get fit enough to qualify in time , and disillusionment with the handling of the cancelled 2020 event , combined with the expenses and uncertainty about travel . It will be interesting to see whether Two Oceans numbers recover in 2023 . ( Note : The “ Previous Finishers ” numbers in these last two tables are based on the highest number of finishers between 2019 and 2021 .)
Soweto and Comrades also shed over 5000 finishers each . The case of Comrades is similar to that of Two Oceans – There ’ s no doubt that expensive entries , poor handling of their cancelled 2020 event , travel costs and the struggle to shed COVID kilograms combined to reduce the numbers . Based on the failure to sell out the 20,000 entries for the 2023 Comrades – whereas 27,500 entries for the ( subsequently cancelled ) 2020 event sold out in under six days – indicates that the trend will not be reversed in the short term . In contrast , the drop in Soweto numbers is simply a case of pricing the product above what the market is prepared to pay ( and the half marathon and 10km entry fees verged on the ridiculous ). This is really sad for the event that has branded itself as “ The People ’ s Race .”
Some of the marathons earlier in the year , including Johnson Crane , Pretoria , Cape Peninsula , Cape Gate Vaal , Jackie Gibson and Kosmos were impacted by COVID regulatory restrictions on field size . The Irene 48km changed to a triplelapper in 2022 , which would account for some of their lost numbers , and the
Images : Marathonphoto . com and courtesy Stuart Mann , Thabang Selemela
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