Clark Gardner Archives - The Running Mann

4th June 202610th June 2026

World Marathon Meltdown: Trouble Brewing at Cape Town Marathon?

It is an open secret that relations between the Cape Town Marathon (CTM) organisers and Athletics South Africa (ASA) / Western Province Athletics (WPA) have deteriorated to the extent that lawyers need to be present at every meeting. Personally, I view a fight between CTM and ASA as a bit like watching England and Australia playing rugby – it a battle of arrogance versus ineptitude and the best you can do is to support the referee.

I received the following lawyer’s letter sent on behalf of ASA and WPA from a confidential source as well as the reply from David Higgs, who I understand to be CTM and Faces’ CEO Clark Gardner’s attorney. The letter is a complaint of decorum about “breach of protocol” that ASA and WPA officials were not invited to the event as is customary.

Whilst some might view it as petty, it highlights the extent to which the relationship between CTM and ASA / WPA has declined. This is the equivalent of not inviting your brother to your wedding.

23rd May 202623rd May 2026

Seeding Stuff-up: CTM left with egg on face as 4 ‘non-elite’ runners finish Top 10

After the 2025 Marathon cancellation, serious organization issues seem to be coming to the fore at the Cape Town Marathon. There was controversy ahead of Saturday’s 10k Peace Run with several local runners initially being denied Elite status by an apparent unpublished “by invitation only” policy for elites.

After a social media campaign, Dewyane Mouries was eventually granted elite status at the 11^th hour. At today’s Peace Run, Mouries finished 7^th fully vindicating his Elite status credentials and raising additional questions about why he had to fight for his right to start at the front of the field. Another athlete who was initially refused Elite status, Keaton Lott, finished 8^th.

21st May 202622nd May 2026

Local champ denied Elite classification at CTM Peace Run despite running qualifying time

Dewayne Mouries is in the form of his life. The 38-year-old police officer who runs for the Boxer Athletics Club recently won the Richmond Corner 10k in a personal best of 30:16 (where he finished almost a minute ahead of his nearest competitor). He also ran 30:48 at the Gqeberha leg of the ABSA Run Your City (RYC) series and a 30:43 at the Paarl SportSA 10km.

At the latter event, Mouries finished third just 5 seconds behind Yanga Malusi and 2 seconds behind William Kaptein. Both Kaptein and Malusi are in the Elite field at the CTM Peace Run. Mouries was hoping to break 30 minutes for the first time at the cancelled Cape Town ABSA RYC 10k two weeks ago and had now set his sights on this milestone at the CTM Peace Run.

Dewayne Mouries finishes third at the recent SportSA 10k in Paarl just 5 seconds behind winner Yanga Malusi (photo supplied).

5th November 20257th November 2025

Otter Trail Challenge (Bringing a knife to a gunfight)

This is the second of two articles on the Otter Trail Challenge. Part one deals with how a wobbly road runner so to the start line. Part two deals with the race itself.

The Otter Trail is South Africa’s most famous hiking trail and the Garden Route National Park, where it is located, is the third biggest public tourist attraction in South Africa in terms of number of visitors (after the Kruger National Park and Table Mountain). The Otter Trail is within an exclusive area of the national park and entrance into the park is throttled at just 12 people per day who are allowed to start the hike which is completed over 5 days and 4 nights.

Just 12 people a day get to experience the Otter Trail which is completed over 5 days.

Once a year they get rid of the hikers and allow 300 people to run the trail in a day on the Thursday for the more recreational Challenge and another 300 on the Saturday for the much more competitive Race. I was one of the fortunate few who got an entry for the Thursday Challenge trail run (courtesy of title sponsors EasyEquities) which must be completed in under 11 hours over incredibly technical terrain to earn a finish.

27th October 202528th October 2025

A Deep Dive into the Cape Town Marathon cancellation (and the implications thereof)

There are two immediate questions to answer:

“Was the correct call made to cancel the Cape Town Marathon?” I believe that the answer to this question is a “Qualified Yes”.
“Should winds of 48km/h and gusts of 60km/h have resulted in the cancellation of the Cape Town Marathon?” To that the answer is an “Emphatic No”.

Actually, there is a third question that needs to be asked, “If we have 48km/h winds with 60km/h gusts on the night of 23 May 2026, will the Cape Town Marathon be cancelled again?” If the answer to that question is “Yes”, then we might as well kiss our World Marathon Major aspirations goodbye, pack up and go home. On the other hand, if the answer is “No”, then we should be looking at the root causes to ensure that they are not repeated.