WPA Archives - The Running Mann

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.