More than 10 000 registered for this year’s virtual Comrades Marathon

More than 10 000 athletes have registered for this year’s virtual Comrades Marathon due to take place on Sunday. This will be the second virtual race after last year’s Comrades Legend race.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people ran remotely and shared their experiences online.

This year people can enter to run distances of 5 kilometres, 10 kilometres, a half-marathon, 45 kilometres and the full Comrades distance of 90 kilometres.

Comrades Marathon Association Vice-Chairperson, Mqondisi Ngcobo, says entries are still open until race day for the centenary anniversary of the event.

“At this point, we have about 10 720 entrants all over the world and we’re still expecting more entries as we are going to be taking entries until the day of the race which is Sunday, the 13th of June 2021. Because they are expected to run from their locations or location of their choice from midnight on the 13th of June until just before midnight on the 14th of June which is Monday, they can run the whole day and they can choose the distance of their choice.”

Last week the Comrades Marathon Association hosted an event at the Comrades House in Pietermaritzburg to mark the centenary of the race.  The first marathon was run on 24 May 1921 by 34 runners.

Race Director, Rowyn James says it would have been great to celebrate the 100th year mark through the normal race, however, COVID-19 changed things: