No camaraderie as Comrades Association runs elites down

Johannesburg - For an institution that prides itself as being The Ultimate Human Race, the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) is fast contriving to turn itself into an elitist event while, ironically, alienating the elite runners.

Their announcement that they are increasing registration fees for the 2022 edition by 100%, while cutting down the prize money for winners by almost half, came across as an institution intent on 'downgrading' their event.

Granted, we all know just how financially devastating the impact of Covid-19 has been, but to expect runners to fork out more money to participate in a race and then tell the potential winners that they will earn way less than they did three years ago when the race was run normally is just not on.

As it is, the R260 000 prize money for this year's winners is not as much as what Gift Kelehe banked when he became champion seven years ago.

The CMA's attempt at justifying their ridiculous new stance just didn't wash, their vice chairman Les Burnard making a feeble attempt at explaining how hamstrung they are financially.

As Kelehe said at the launch, the CMA should have used the last two years to strive to source sponsorships.

After all, they had the two virtual runs which many athletes registered for and because they didn't have to incur costs of running a normal race, surely those registration fees went a long way towards boosting their reserves.

To then cut prize money as much as they have is a smack in the face of the elite runners who spend money to put themselves in line for the title.

In a country crazy about ultra running, the Comrades Marathon is the dream goal of most top athletes and many of them go to great lengths to prepare themselves for a shot at glory.

A lot of