Comrades entries reach 19 523

THE Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) have confirmed that they have received 19 523 entries for this Sunday’s “up-run” from Durban to Pietermaritzburg.

Among the entries, a quarter are novices who will be running the 89km ultra-marathon for the first time – while from an international point of view – 1 230 runners have qualified of which 253 are from the UK, 179 from the US, 152 from Australia and 115 from Brazil.

CMA vice-chairman, Peter Procter, verified that since the first Comrades was run in 1921, there have been 102 184 participants of which 83 815 successfully completed the distance.

Last year the CMA’s claim to have the race recognised as the world’s premier ultra-marathon was confirmed by the Guinness Book of Records when it was established that 14 343 runners officially crossed the finishing line at the Kingsmead Cricket ground in Durban.

Among these were Dave Rogers of the Westville Athletic Club – who this year will be attempting his 45th Comrades – and Louis Masseyn of Riebeeckstad Harriers in the Free State, who is going for his 39th medal.

Zimbabwean runner, Stephen Muzhingi, who won the two back-to-back “down-runs” last year and the year before, is on the brink of joining an exclusive club of eight runners who have won more than two Comrades Marathons.

Led by Bruce Fordyce, who has nine winner’s medals to his name, there follows three with five – Arthur Newton, Wally Hayward and Jackie Mekler, Alan Robb with four and three more with three victories – Hardy Ballington, Dave Bagshaw and Vladimir Kotov, the latter the only one to achieve the “hat-trick” this century.

This Sunday, Robb will be looking for his 38th medal which includes 12 gold, 16 silver, six Bill Rowan medals and three bronze.

Although most runners earn their “green number” for completing 10 Comrades Marathons, those who have won five gold medals (for finishing in the top 10) or who have won the race three times are fast-tracked to their green number.

Robb’s tally has effectively earned him his green number six times over and with each green number earning a laurel wreath to stitch below the number, Robb’s next wreath should be in 2013.

Nine-time winner Fordyce will earn his eighth green number next year and this year, at the age of 55, he is looking for a silver medal by completing in under seven-and-a-half hours.

Watch out for Kotov, now 53, as he also bids to enhance his already legendary status by winning a fourth Comrades.

All three of his previous victories have been on the “up-runs” to Pietermaritzburg.

He is best remembered for his storming finish in the 2000 race when he set a new “up-run” record of five hours, 25 minutes, 33 seconds – a record which stood for eight years until Leonard Shvetsov lowered it to 5:24,47 in the last “up-run” in 2008 to become the holder of the up and down records simultaneously.

One of the first black athletes to notch up 30 runs will be Moses Madlala of the Kwa-Mashu Running Club, who will be hoping to celebrate his 61st birthday on Sunday by finishing in under 10 hours. Since his first Comrades in 1981, only six years after black athletes were officially allowed to run in this great race, Madlala has missed only one in 2002.