KZN runners in Championship field

Overtakers Sports Club and Border Athletics have stepped in to rescue the SA Half-Marathon championships which will now be held in conjunction with the first 68km Legends ultra marathon which will also finish in East London. 

Originally these championships were to be held in Witbank in July, but were cancelled when Athletics South Africa were unable to give the host province assurances over the funding of the event. This raised several concerns from the elite distance runners as the event is also used to select the team for the biannual world half-marathon championships which will be held in Copenhagen on 24 March 2014.

The new proposal means the country's top runners including the likes of Olympian Tanith Maxwell, Jenna Challenor, Syiabonga Nkonde, Thbane Chagwe and Lungiswa Mdedelwa from KZN will be able to stake claim to a place on the South African team by competing in the new 21km around East London. 

In a further twist to the rescue bid, the race will be open to all comers, although the SA title and medals will only be awarded to South Africans. In effect this means that runners who have not been selected by there province can still win age and open categories in their individual capacity - something that has not been allowed in recent years. 

The 68km ultra is open to solo and teams of 4 each running 17km in a relay over the course from Bisho to the Jan Smuts Stadium in East London. It is expected that over 5 000 runners will be competing across all the distances which includes an open 5km run later in the morning. 

“We hold the legends marathon during the Heritage month whose theme is; Reclaiming, Restoring and Celebrating our Living Heritage. We aim to celebrate through this marathon the Legend in all of us,” said Luthando Bara, Chairman of the Legends Marathon.

(File Photo:Gallo Images)

- Norrie Williamson

Twitter - @ECRSportswave