Comrades Marathon records may fall as SHORTER route announced

The official route distance of this year’s 96th Comrades Marathon from Pietermaritzburg to Durban on Sunday, 11 June will be 87.701km.

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Upon completion of the official route course measurement conducted by the Comrades Marathon Association’s (CMA) Route Portfolio, Department of Transports Road Traffic Inspectorate and Msunduzi Traffic, CMA Race Director, Rowyn James has confirmed that the official race distance of this year’s Comrades Marathon ‘down’ run will be nearly 2.2km shorter than last year’s 89.885km ‘down’ run.

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It’s worth noting that the last time that the race had finished at the HollywoodBets Kingsmead in 2016, the race distance was 89.208km.

In that year, South Africa’s David Gatebe set the current ‘down’ run record of 5:18:19.

Meanwhile, when Frith van der Merwe set the current women’s best ‘down’ run time of 5:54:43 in 1989, the distance was 89.6km.

The difference in distances over the years is mainly due to the roadworks and varying routes taken on the run out of Pietermaritzburg.

COMRADES MARATHON CUT-OFF TIMES

As reported by The South African website, organisers have offered R500 000 for a new record in both the men’s and woman’s races this year.

It’s definitely on the cards!

That money is in addition to the R500 000 on offer for the men’s and women’s winners of the race.

The second and third-place finishers will also have more reason to console themselves in defeat, with their prizes now R250 000 and R180 000, respectively.

On top of that, should the winner be a South African and from the KwaZulu-Natal province, they will be paid an additional R200 000 and R60 000, respectively.

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Meanwhile, James has also confirmed the five cut-off points for this year’s race.

CUT – OFF | RUNNING TIME | TIME OF DAY

Cato Ridge (N3 Subway) | 04:30:00 | 10h00
Drummond (Halfway) | 06:10:00 | 11h40
Winston Park (Caltex Garage) | 08:10:00 | 13h40
Pinetown (St. Johns Avenue Subway) | 9:20:00 | 14h50
Sherwood | 11:00:00 | 16h30

The 96th Comrades Marathon will be run on Sunday, 11 June 2023, starting at the Pietermaritzburg City Hall at 05:30 and ending 12 hours later at the Hollywoodbets Kingsmead Stadium in Durban.

The race will be the 48th Comrades ‘down’ run.

James advised runners to make their way to the start of the race early saying, “Due to the ongoing N3 roadworks, we ask that all of our athletes make their way to the Pietermaritzburg City Hall early to avoid the traffic congestion and potentially miss the start of the race.”