The Comrades Marathon Association Board has undertaken to address concerns raised by runners in this year’s race, including the quality of the sound at the start, venue, route change, cut-off times and finish venue layout.
The issues were raised by participants in this year’s 96th running of the world famous 87.7km ultra-marathon.
The Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) said they had held a debriefing session with the sound service provider to establish what had transpired following complaints.
“The sound system failure had a knock-on effect of the synced soundtracks not being audible which in turn led to a time lapse in the firing of the official start gun in relation to when the canon went off. We have had a debriefing session with the service provider whom we have used for the past three editions of the race to establish what has happened. We have used the same service provider at the finish venue and no problems were experienced there.”
Alternate routes out of Pietermaritzburg will be investigated for the next down run.
The CMA extended a “categoric and unreserved” apology to the runners affected by the cut-off times at Pinetown and Sherwood.
“To mitigate this going forward, the services of relevant professionals will be called upon to assist the technical team in determining a fair and just time for the cut-off at each point based on the official race distance.
“The CMA apologises for the incorrect cut-off times being featured on the official Comrades Marathon App which had not been updated from the previous year. The CMA will be reaching out to those runners who were potentially affected by the cut-off discrepancies.”
The Association will be consulting with various professionals to help redesign the finish venue layout, it added.
“This is in a bid to ensure an effective ‘easy flow’ of runners and supporters; and alleviate congestion concerns raised, particularly in the late afternoon.”
CMA chairperson, Mqondisi Ngcobo said other issues raised such as start safety concerns, T-shirt sizes, medals and littering would also be addressed through the sub-committees in a bid to resolve them.
“The main aim of the CMA is to stage a safe and enjoyable ultra-marathon and live up to its reputation as The Ultimate Human Race. The concerns raised by our athletes are important in this regard,” said Mr Ngcobo.