Our Post-race Poll
With all the talk about the safety issues in the race , we set up a poll on the Modern Athlete website and asked our readers to rate what they thought were the biggest issues to come out of the 2023 Comrades . We identified what we thought were the six most problematical or concerning issues , then asked readers to score each on a scale of 1 to 10 , where 1 denoted not a concern and 10 denoted a major concern .
We had 556 responses , but we realise that this was by no means a scientific sampling , rather a quick poll to gauge general feelings about the race , and the issues that emerged from it . We also acknowledge that the results could have been skewed , depending on who answered . For example , if most of the respondents were cut off at one of the intermediate points , then it could skew the results for the specific items dealing with that . Nevertheless , the poll kicked out some interesting results .
1 Disqualification of cheats for submitting false qualification info . 4 Intermediate cut-off times along the route being too harsh .
2 Security and safety at the start .
5 Overzealous physical enforcement of cut-offs by officials .
3 Safety at the bottleneck in the early kilometres .
6 Bailer buses hindering runners on the route .
One of the most interesting outcomes of the poll is that there is a consistently high number of respondents who scored all or most of these issues a major concern , and if you add the scores of 6,7,8,9 with 10 , you get a majority of the respondents in every case , with only the disqualification of cheats getting a higher number of people saying it was a lesser concern for them .
What I did find surprising is that the behaviour of cut-off officials and interference caused by bailer buses got more votes are the biggest concern than the safety issues at the start and early in the race . As mentioned earlier , this could be due to who answered the poll , with more of the respondents affected by cut-offs and buses , but I nevertheless found this result surprising . As I wrote in my Editor ’ s Letter , I consider the safety issues to be the number one priority of the 2024 Comrades Race Advisory Committee , and I hope they are already hard at work discussing steps to address the concerns raised this year .
Images : Courtesy Comrades Marathon , Nedbank Running Club , The Running Mann
22 ISSUE 160 | www . modernathlete . co . za