Images : Guntis Berzins / World Athletics , Adam Nurkiewicz / World Athletics , Lauris Viksne / World Athletics , Marta Gorczynska / World Athletics , Norrie Williamson & Courtesy World Athletics |
Team SA ’ s take on their men ’ s 21km bronze medal |
Cian Oldknow reflects on another 21km PB |
Great experience for Maxime Chaumeton and Nicholas Seoposengwe |
Tayla Kavanagh enthusiastic after her first World Champs outing
Carina Viljoen sees a bright future for the Mile at World Champs
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This is actually not the first time that World Athletics ( formerly the IAAF ) has replaced the World Half Marathon Championships with the World Road Running Championships . In 2006 , the IAAF decided to try something new , so announced the new World Road Running Champs could be raced at any one of the officially recognised IAAF racing distances , i . e . 15km , 20km , 21.1km or 25km . And that ’ s how the 20km race in Debrecen , Hungary was selected as the official World Champs route for 2006 .
This saw some countries use a 20km route for their 2006 national champs or selection races , including South Africa , and it also led to some people leaping to the incorrect conclusion that the half marathon distance had been officially changed to 20km ( and furthermore , that the standard marathon would be rounded down to 40km as well ). I know this because I received an e-mail from a club chairman querying this , as his provincial office had ordered all clubs in his province that had a half marathon on the race calendar , to go remeasure their routes and make them 20km , in line with the ( alleged ) IAAF and ASA decision .
I knew the actual story behind the 20km national champs , so I traded several mails with that provincial office , trying diplomatically to point out that it appeared there may be
Tayla Kavanagh on her way to a PB in the women ’ s 5km
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a misunderstanding , that only the World Champs would change distance each year , whereas the half marathon distance was still officially 21.1km . All I got for my troubles was being not so diplomatically told that “ while you might be a respected journalist in your field , this is an official decision taken by Athletics South Africa – we have the minutes from an ASA Council meeting to prove that – so we will not be engaging further with you on the matter .”
I therefore phoned the then ASA General Manager , Linda Ferns , and told her about the issue in this province . She confirmed that ASA had definitely not decided to change all half marathons to the 20km distance , so I diplomatically suggested she speak to this provincial manager to clear things up . A few days later , all the half marathons in that province were 21.1km again , and I left it there .
In 2007 , the World Champs happened to be raced over the standard 21.1km distance again in Udine , Italy , and sometime soon after that , the IAAF decided to go back to the original World Half Marathon Champs format in 2008 . Fast-forward to 2023 and the World Road Running Champs concept is back , but this time , happily , without any potentially confusing tampering with the distance of the half marathon race .
Maxime and Nicholas reunited at the 5km finish
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