Western Province Athletics Archives

29th September 202627th October 2026

Cedric the Skelm (WPA turns blind eye to senior official’s World Relays travel scam)

Cedric van Wyk is a long-serving, senior Western Province Athletics (WPA) and Athletics South Africa (ASA) technical official who appears to be scamming athletes and administrators, including other WPA officials. Van Wyk advertised an all-inclusive World Athletics (WA) endorsed trip from Cape Town to Botswana for the World Relay Championships. The trip was bogus and never materialised. However, a WPA Disciplinary Committee found that his alleged fraud was a “private contractual dispute”. Van Wyk is therefore free to continue running scams in the Western Cape as long as he is careful not to use WPA logos and letterheads. World Athletics logos, on the other hand, are fair game.

Cedric van Wyk, the senior WPA official at the centre of an alleged travel scam scandal.

27th September 202629th September 2026

What happened to Allen Barnes the WPA Finance Officer bust for fraud?

Back in January 2020 there was the strange story about the Western Province Athletics Finance Officer, Allen Barnes, who disappeared: After leaving his home at 3:30am, he failed to arrive at the Stragglers Beachcomber race where he was due to be officiating. When his car was found abandoned at Cape Town International airport the next day, many suspected foul play.

Allen Barnes, the WPA Finance Officer who went missing in action in 2020.

However, quickly thereafter rumours surfaced that he had been stealing money from WPA and, knowing that the gambit was up, decided to flee to Gauteng instead of facing the consequences. This version gained more credence when it was revealed that instead of going to Strandfontein for the Stragglers race, he had instead diverted to Grandwest Casino, ostensibly to try and win back all money he had stolen.

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.

22nd September 202523rd September 2025

Liars, Cheats & A Tale of Two Chairs: What to Expect at the Two Oceans Marathon NPC AGM

After what was undoubtedly the worst organised Two Oceans in the event’s 55-year history, and the shambles that followed, it’s great to see (and be part of) a much needed turnaround. However, we are still not quite out of the woods and this year’s AGM will be an important checkpoint to hopefully cement in a return to runner centricity and good governance.

Investigations Still Needed

There is likely to be a lot of discussion over the various issues experienced at the trail, ultra and half marathon as well as allegations of incompetence, corruption and extreme opportunism against specific board members and staff. The primary focus of the interim board, of which I was a member, has been on ensuring that the 2026 race goes ahead.

Personally, I have pushed for accountability and that formal, transparent investigations are conducted into those implicated. Some headway has been made but, because of the timing, this will be a problem for the post-AGM board to deal with.

Some of the accountability issues that still need formal investigation are:

14th April 202524th September 2025

How Cavanagh ‘Karened’ her way to the top of Two Oceans

Sometimes you see a person in a senior position and wonder how they got there. This article takes a look into Toni Cavanagh’s rise to Chairperson of the Two Oceans Marathon and the implications for the event.

Cavanagh’s Two Oceans career began in 2015 with a 3:01:46 finish in the half marathon and she followed this up with a further three half marathons in 2016, 2017 and 2018. She recorded her best time, 2:45:31, in 2017. Although she entered the half marathon from 2022 to 2024, Cavanagh did not make it to the start line. Also of interest is that from 2018 onwards she was not a licensed athlete and entered with a temporary license.

After losing an impressive 17kg, Cavanagh featured in the July 2017 edition of Runner’s World article (photo Runner’s World).

28th March 202430th March 2024

The Lunatics are Ruining the Asylum (the fight against idiotic athletics officialdom)

Picture a new runner who has just discovered the joy of running. They’ve gone from being a couch potato to struggling through a 5km parkrun to running a comfortable parkrun every Saturday morning. They are proud of their progress and look forward to a new challenge by entering the Firgrove 15km in Constantia, Cape Town. This is the furthest that they have ever run and, at the start line, they are not even sure that they’ll make it. As they near the finish, dreams of entering a half marathon and maybe even Cape Town Marathon later that year fill their head. They cross the finish line with a broad smile, the pain of sore legs disappears with the exultation of the runner’s high and the endorphins of achievement course through their blood.

Then, all of a sudden, it all comes crashing down when some prick with a badge and an orange vest starts obnoxiously shouting that you are disqualified for violating a rule you knew nothing about. How many social runners that bear the brunt of antisocial refereeing are lost to the sport of road running?