medals Archives - The Running Mann

15th April 202516th April 2025

The Two Oceans Board can’t stop lying

The Two Oceans Board can just not stop lying. They’ve been caught out again…

Nine days after the last half marathon runner crossed the finish line, an email has finally gone out to impacted athletes. It is estimated that about 2500 runners did not get a medal after finishing. However, the email said that the shortage was due to “a significantly higher number of runners than anticipated finished in the bronze medal category due to the hot weather on Sunday 6 April, leading to a shortage of bronze medals and a surplus of silver medals.”

This is a bald-faced lie.

24th June 202324th June 2023

The Frances Hayward Medal (Recourse for those that Comrades culled)

In 1923, Frances Hayward was the first female participant of the Comrades marathon. Her request for an official entry was declined so she ran unofficially, finishing in 11h35 (well within the 12 hour cutoff that was changed to 11 hours in 1928). As an unofficial entrant she was denied the silver medal handed out to all finishers in those days. Therefore, the Frances Hayward Medal seems fitting to recognise, “those that should have received a medal but didn’t.”

Frances Hayward, the first woman to complete the Comrades Marathon in 1923. She had to run unofficially so she never received a finishers medal. The Frances Hayward Medal seems fitting to recognise, “those that should have received a medal but didn’t.” (photo credit Comrades Marathon Association)

Unfortunately, along with the highs of the new men’s and women’s best Down Run times and Johannes Mosehla (81) becoming the oldest ever Comrades finisher, 2023 also saw a long string of organisational blunders from the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) that have left a bad taste in mouth of the running community. One of these blunders was the ill-thought out and illogical cutoff times that needlessly culled hundreds of should-be Comrades medallists from the field and left them medal-less.

7th June 20239th June 2023

Three Hard Questions for Agile Leaders

In my opinion, the hardest part of an agile transformation is the change management – and the hardest minds to change are usually those of the leaders. However, active leadership buy-in, support, understanding and active participation is the number one critical success factor in any transformation initiative.

Below are three questions to help leaders on their journey. Each question helps to reframe the leadership role and relevance thereof in an agile organisation.