WALLY HAYWARD MARATHON AS A COMRADES QUALIFIER

The Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) has confirmed that some athletes who ran yesterday’s Wally Hayward Marathon in Gauteng as a qualifier for the 2024 Comrades Marathon will have their finishing times recalculated.

This comes in the wake of nearly 1850 athletes (including both 42km and 21km athletes) being affected by a misdirection in the route which occurred between the 2km and 3km mark due to the lead vehicle making a wrong turn at an intersection.

Runners at the front of the race consequently ran approximately 3km longer than the official race distance while runners closer to the back were redirected along the correct route and ran the usual 42km race distance.

CMA Race & Operations Manager, Ann Ashworth says, “The race timing service provider has calculated and published an adjusted 42.2km time and, for 9 athletes who missed the sub 4h50 qualifying standard, an estimated 48km time which will allow them to qualify for this year’s race.”

“We look forward to having this issue resolved by Monday, 6 May 2024, which is the final day for submission of all qualifying details for the 2024 Comrades Marathon.”

The 97th Comrades Marathon will be the 49th Up Run on Sunday, 9 June 2024, starting at the Durban City Hall at 05h30 and ending 12 hours later at the HollywoodBets Scottsville Racecourse in Pietermaritzburg, covering a distance of 85.91km.