Covering a portion of the ultimate marathon in a car; buddies running it as a relay race; running using someone else’s number; and joining the race further down the route — these are some of the ways runners cheat in the Comrades Marathon.
This week, the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) said 25 runners had been disqualified from participating in Sunday’s race because they had cheated in their qualifiers.
Stuart Mann, a popular blogger and marathon enthusiast, with 251 marathons including 10 Comrades under his belt, told the Sunday Times the 25 runners were “just the tip of the iceberg” when it came to cheating to enter the race.
“Cheating among social runners has been going on for years and has been getting worse. I picked up many cheats from the 2022 Comrades event when doing statistical analysis on the results. I think the 25 runners are just the tip of the iceberg.
“I have received several messages, together with screenshots and photos, of many other runners who have cheated on their qualifiers. Some of the cheaters are repeat offenders,” he said.
The CMA said the 25 runners had been disqualified for supplying false qualifying information.
Mann said: “After entering for Comrades, you have to run a marathon [about 42km] under 4hr 50min to qualify to run. The faster your time, the better your seeding. If you are in H batch at the back of the field, you will take up to 10 minutes to cross the start line. Some runners cannot run under 4hr 50min and pay another runner to qualify for them, while others pay another runner to run a faster qualifier so that they can start in a better seeding batch.”
He picked up many cheats in his analysis of last year’s data.
“The timing data shows that our first cheat ran the second half of Comrades almost 90 minutes faster than the first, while the photographic data shows two different people at the start and finish.
“Running Comrades definitely changes a person but normally it’s an internal change in one’s psyche rather than a change in one’s physique before and after Drummond. One party in this relay team is a Green Number holder [someone who has 10 or more Comrades medals], making the duplicity even more disappointing,” he said.
I would go back to the old validation system for a start. I would also list the qualifier name and claimed time online together with the runner’s entry data. Runners can very effectively police themselves and making it visible would reduce the temptation to cheat, plus it would help sort out genuine data entry errors well ahead of registration
— Stuart Mann
The CMA did not release the names of the 25 runners but named their clubs.
Mann said: “The clubs are the innocent victims here. In the past, clubs were given a list of their runners together with qualifying times and races, after which the clubs validated all their runners. This year, clubs were not given the opportunity to validate their runners.
“In one case, the whistle-blower was the club, which notified Comrades and KZN Athletics that one of their members had cheated and proactively kicked the cheat out of their club. And yet the club was named in the press release. Another club that had an athlete disqualified forwarded me the e-mail they sent to Comrades imploring a return to the old validation process.
“The clubs are horribly embarrassed by the actions of one or two of their members but had no opportunity to rectify this.”
Collegians Harriers chair Werner Jonas said clubs had no role to play in authorising an individual’s entry to the race and “each member acts independently according to their own conscience”.
One member of the club was disqualified for cheating.
“This is a very serious matter that should not be dealt with in haste,” Jonas said.
Phuma KZN Athletics Club said it learnt of the cheating from the CMA’s statement.
“We have since established that there are four of 46 of our members running Comrades 2023 who are affected by this unfortunate incident of cheating. As a club, we do not condone their act or conduct,” the club said.
Chiltern Athletic Club said it had informed the CMA of one of its members cheating to qualify.
“It was due to our committee’s diligence and intervention that we found and informed CMA and KZN Athletics of an incident involving one of our members who has since had their membership withdrawn.
“We have asked CMA to make good on their statement and thank those clubs who have contributed to eradicating cheats.”
The CMA said it would respond to queries about cheating after race day.
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