South Africa: successful return for the Comrades Marathon after two years of absence

A total of 15,888 runners took the start of the Comrades marathon in South Africa on August 28, 2022. REUTERS - ROGAN WARD

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

After a two-year hiatus due to Covid, the longest and oldest of the ultra-marathons saw 15,888 runners manage to swallow the nearly 90 km that separate the city of Pietermaritzburg in Durban.

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With our correspondent in Johannesburg,

Leaving at 5:30 a.m.,

 had until 5:30 p.m. to cross the finish line and obtain a medal.

A race that has the particularity of alternating between the direction of the climb and the direction of the descent.

This year it was a long descent to the Indian Ocean.

And when you can't run, you can still crawl.

Dropped by her legs, a runner got on all fours to cover the last ten meters that separated her from the finish.

Not everyone will have this strength.

A marathon runner had to be evacuated just 150 meters from the line.

Not to mention this man who missed the finishers' medal for arriving a second after 5:30 p.m.

Not disgusted, he promised to come back next year, because the Comrades riders are driven by a spirit of revenge.

Take the Russian Alexandra Morozova: three days before the race, she learned that she was banned from the competition.

A sanction linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The day before the start, she won a legal battle, raced the next day and became the first woman to cross the finish line in 6:17:48 against 5:30:38 for the male winner, South African Tete Dijana.

So why run 90 km?

For all that, these challenges, these revenges... Or to make his marriage proposal.

"Caution, will you marry me, I'm running these 90 km for you", could we read on the banner carried by Joseph, a runner who arrived safely.

Life as a couple is a long-distance race, some say.

Joseph no doubt wanted to prove that he knew how to go the distance.

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