The marathon that never was
Blantyre 42.195 mess exposed·
athletes ran 32km instead 42.195· ‘cooked’ results were announced joy ndovi senior news analyst
Although it was touted as a successful sixth edition of the Blantyre 42.195, Nation on Sunday can reveal that the marathon organised by Malawi National Council of Sports was far from perfect as the athletes covered 32 kilometres (km) which is 10km less than the official distance set by World Athletics after wrong calibration of the route.Worst still, even after realising their mistake, the organisers of the marathon which is used as a qualifier for international competitions including, Olympic Games, decided to cover up the mess and came up with standardised results, instead of declaring the race ‘null and void’ as stipulated in World Athletics Competition and Technical Rules 2024 Edition.
The results for the event were announced to the public as being that of the official 42.195km distance and not the actual covered 32km.
TECHNICAL INCOMPETENCE
The Blantyre 42.195, a marathon organised by Sports Council which is government’s sports regulator, took place on September 7 in Blantyre.The race started at Kamuzu Stadium main entrance and the athletes turned right into Makata Road to Chichiri Roundabout exiting to the left into Masauko Chipembere Highway, all the way to the Independence Arch.The athletes then branched right into the Kasungu Crescent to Chichiri Shopping Mall southern gate before going down Kwacha road to MBC TV before reaching St. Columba CCAP Church.From St Columba CCAP, the athletes turned right along Njamba Road up to Njamba CDSS to Kenyatta Drive then Kamba where they turned to Mahatma Gandhi Road before reaching Malawi Red Cross junction.From there, they turned to Mandala Road up to the roundabout before exiting to the right at Cfao into Masauko Chipembere Highway to Clock Tower and then into the Masauko Chipembere Highway to Chichiri Roundabout for another lap.
In the last lap, the athletes took Makata Road to Kamuzu Stadium where the finish line was at the VIP stand.But our investigations have revealed that technical committee which was the responsibility of Athletics Malawi, made wrong calibration of this route’s distance as it did not add up to World Athletics’ 42km minimum standard for a marathon.The winner Mphatso Nandolo’s timer indicated he had finished the race in 1:50.00 hours, beating world record holder late legend Kenyan athlete Kelvin Kiptum, who set the record at Chicago Marathon in 2023 after clocking 2:00:35.
But this was all wrong as Nandolo’s results were for the wrongly calibrated 32km.MESS COVERED UP, STANDARDISED RESULTS ANNOUNCED
As the athletes started pouring in at Kamuzu Stadium, all their timers indicated they had covered 32km just like Nandolo.Having discovered the error, the organisers were left with one acceptable choice: Nullify the race.However, they went ahead and covered up the mess by standardising the results.The results which the organisers officially released showed that the winner in men’s category Mphatso Nadolo covered the 42.195km men’s race in 2:22:00 while second-placed covered the race in Mcherenje clocked 2:24:20.Third-placed Grevazio Mpani’s results were released as being 2:26: 33 while Chancy Master’s results were 2:28:13.In women’s category, the organising committee gave Nalicy Chirwa 2:57:02 while second placed Tereza Master was given 3:02:39.Third-placed Doris Fisher’s time was 3:04:23 while fourth-placed Mphatso Khembo’s was 3:10:51.
The organising committee did this for all the 244 participants of the competition.
ORGANISERS JUSTIFY STANDARDISED RESULTS When we asked the organisers why the athletes run 32km and not the official 42.195km, the organisers blamed the technical committee for the mess.Malawi National Council of Sport spokesperson Edgar Ntulumbwa said: “As organisers, we left the technical aspect to Athletics Malawi. They are the ones who made the error in the calibration of the route and also came up with the standardised results.”Athletics Malawi chairperson Isaac Chimwala confirmed the calibration error and justified using standardised results.He said: “It was our error and not that of athletes. So, we were left with no option but to standardise the results to say if an athlete covered 32km in such time, then if it was 42.195km he would have finished it in such time.
”BREACH OF WORLD ATHLETICS REGULATION
World Athletics Competition and Technical Rules 2024 Edition are clear on measurement of all competitions distance and any deviation of such regulations makes the results invalid.Article 55.5 on Surveying and Measurements reads: “The length of the course shall not be less than the official distance for the event. The uncertainty in the measurement shall not exceed 0.1% [42m for the Marathon] and the length of the course shall have been measured and certified in advance by an International Road Course Measurer.“To prevent a course from being found to be shorter than the official race distance, it is recommended that a ‘short course prevention factor’ be built in when laying out the course.
For bicycle measurements, this factor should be 0.1 percent which means that each km on the course will have a ‘measured length’ of 1001m.”The regulations also stress that only a certified Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) Road Course Measurer should be used to calibrate the route.The regulations read further: “At all competitions, an International Road Course Measurer shall be appointed or engaged to ensure that the courses where Road Events are held entirely or partially outside the stadium are measured and certified in accordance with World Athletics requirements.“The measurer shall be a member of the panel of international road course measurers Grade A or B.
The course should be measured in good time before the competition. The measurer will check and certify the course if they find it conforms to the rules for road races. He shall also ensure compliance with Competition and Technical Rules in case a world record may be made.” A calibrated bicycle fitted with a Jones Counter, which is mounted at the hub of the bicycle’s front wheel, is the only approved method of measuring road race courses.
EXPERTS CALL FOR NULLIFICATION OF RESULTS
Athletics coach Francis Munthali, said based on the World Athletics Competition and Technical rules, the 2024 Blantyre 42.195 never took place and the results are invalid.He said: “The truth is that there was no sixth edition of Blantyre 42.195km. Coming up with times for 42.195km when the athletes didn’t even reach that far was not just against the rules but also cheating.“Such results can’t stand.
The best thing to do was to nullify the marathon, explain to the public what happened and not covering up and coming up with standardised results. Standardisation of results doesn’t exist in athletics. You cannot assume that all 244 athletes’ speed will be constant throughout a marathon.”The Zomba-based former long distance athlete who represented Malawi at the country at Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 Olympic Games said anything could have happened in the last 10km of the race which the athletes never covered.“A marathon is about endurance. Someone can win the marathon in the last five kilometres of 42km.
I recall in Kasungu I lost a marathon after leading for 40km, only to be overtaken in the last 1km.“Our athletics legend Mathews Kambale lost a marathon at Chancellor College, less than a kilometre from the finish line at Chirunga Stadium after sustaining an injury at Great Hall.”On his part, Kambale, who represented Malawi at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games in Germany, 1984 Los Angeles Olympic games in USA, 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, Australia called for the nullification of the results.He said: “It is a shame that they came up with results when the athletes never covered the full distance. The prizes were not even supposed to be given out. The rules are clear.
A marathon is supposed to be at 42.195km. Even if the calibration was more that the official distance, the results would have been null and void as well.”Calibration errors are uncommon in athletics, but when they happen, the results are nullified to avoid false times.“Nullification of results from wrongly calibrated routes is a must because you can’t have times from a race that didn’t meet World Athletics standards.“This could be one of contributing factors to our athletes poor performance at international stage because may be have been having times from wrongly calibrated races,” said Kambale.In 2015, results of Zimbabwe’s Old Mutual Westgate Marathon were nullified after discovering that the runners covered a shorter distance with a difference of 2km.Ministry of Youth and Sports spokesperson MacMillan Mwale said there is need to engage an International Road Course Measurer to calibrate all races routes to avoid a repetition of the Blantyre 42.195 debacle.
