By Bruce Fordyce
Does anyone know what has happened to the university road runners? As far as I can see they’ve vanished or certainly they have become as endangered a species as Africa’s rhinos.
20 years ago the universities were a breeding ground for road running talent now the students seem to have vanished. The gold and blue of Wits university has disappeared and along with it the blue of UCT, the purple of Rhodes, the green and blue of Natal, and the maroon of the Maties.
It seems a pity because the Comrades, for instance boasts some student winners. I won four times in Wits colours and was very proud to do so. Dave Levick won in UCT colours as did Isavel Roche-Kelly, and Lindsay Weight won for Natal. The N.U.A.C. trophy was a trophy awarded at the Comrades prize giving to the best university team, and winning it was a serious matter for students. I wonder if the C.M.A. is aware of its existence. I shudder to think that it is probably gathering dust at the back of a trophy cabinet somewhere or acting as a vase for a bunch of flowers on some shelf.
But it isn’t just about the winners. Varsity teams dominated many road and cross-country races. It mattered to students to add “athletic team” to their C.V.s.
At my first Comrades, in 1977, the starting procedure included the Wits war cry bellowed loudly before Max Trimborn’s cockerel crow. It was a very raucous war cry because there were 75 of us running!
Now if I see blue and yellow/gold colours on the road I know they are the colours of Nelspruit athletic club, not Wits University.
Why have the students vanished? Perhaps road running is no longer seen as being “ cool”. Perhaps other sports like basketball, and water polo have replaced running as the in thing to do.
Perhaps we have lazier, fatter students?
I’m puzzled.
Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions about how to bring the youngsters back.
It’s the dop Bruce….it’s the dop!
Hi.i’m a varsity student running in my blue and yellow for UWC and very proud of it.
I think that varsity students have other priorities and I’m not referring to their studies. Running take a lot of time and hard work, the kind of discipline and dedication that many youth of today do not posess. It’s a very sad and depressing thought.
My personal observation:
One generation ago, we rode bicycles, played in parks, and enjoyed playing sport at school. It was quite natural, and fun, to participate in sport at varsity.
Alas, times have changed. Children now get driven to school, play in cyberspace, and might play compulsory sport at school. The emphasis is more on winning than enjoying the game, and the training becomes too rigorous. They get to varsity, and are glad that sport is not compusory. School may have taken out some of the enjoyment.
Of course, there are some who continue with sport, and I applaud them. Is road running cool amongst the youngsters of today? I think it is, but only for the shorter distances.
As a wits undergrad, i was told by other students thats wits AC did track running, so i trained on my own. While i’ll never be fast enough to win any race, perhaps other potential great runners found the same thing.
I’m now a Varsity Kudus runner (mainly wits postgrads and alumni) and about 1/3 of the club ran comrades – we showed up in force, although none of us are fast enough to win. Our version of blue and yellow was there & alot of us are still (postgrad) students. We have so many experienced comrades runners amoungst us, perhaps, politcs aside, the university athletics clubs need some help & inspiration from the old boys & girls!
Comrades is not for Varsity Students. Comrades is for over 40′s.
Bullocks….I had a chat to a young lady aged 24 last night at church……having allready run her first 42 in FEb, planning to do the Deloitte 42 this weekend, and aiming for her 1st Comrades in May
And her second in June?
I am a student at UP and I am now training for my first comrades. For me the races are to expensive, to pay up to R70 for n 21 km is to much for me,that’s half of my monthly budget, can’t they give student discount for marthons? The biggest problem is its to expensive for us students to compete.
I agree with what has been said added to which there are perhaps also more choices today. Twenty years ago cycling in any form was not really an option,nor was trail running.
Hi Bruce….I tend to agree. My dad was involved in athletics in the then South Transvaal Athletic Association, and most of the then talented athletes were late highschool and varsity students. I can remember going with him coaching at JCE, and as a young school boy joined a huge group, running up SWEETHOOGTE (I believe you are famliar with this hill!!). As the year progressed from January so did the size of the group.
Also agree that it may help if there is a LOT more marketing of the sport amongst varsity students and scholars. Giving discounted entry fees to scholars and students may go a looong way in getting them on the road. I listened to the president of ASA saying on TV yesterday that he is positive that it will take only 6 months to get athletics right in SA. Bollocks!!! It will take many many moons and a collosal sponsor. Then after school there are the studies, and the dop, and all that – from which you only recover in your late thirties. Conclusion is that with our current lifestyle you only get to run comrades at age 40 when you are properly senile.
I recently sat on a varsity’s SRC, and held the sports portfolio… participation in sports is at an all time low, membership numbers may be high, but a vast majority of those members are ‘drinking members’ they join purely for the social elements, when I say social I don’t mean a good bit of banter while out for a sail, run, cycle; I mean for the parties. should a sports club fail to have a reputation for legendary parties, it also fails to attract social members a healthy number of social members (healthy only because their membership fees are the club’s bread and butter).
the next biggest problem is that very few universities support the serious student athlete, whether it is academically (time off to attend a training camp, exemption from tests to go to nationals… Natalie du Toit was a student at UCT, she was awarded sportsperson of the year, but was academically excluded because a lecturer failed to grant her exemption for a major gala, it was a pre-olympics year if memory serves), they are not offered adequate financial incentive (last i checked a full varsity sports scolarship for sports other than rugby was R9000pa that only covers one course!), financial and administrative support to the clubs is often poor (sports clubs, other that their members fees are given a grant per year from sports administration, this grant will be allocated from the sporting sector’s lump sum amount and will be allocated largely by popularity of the sport, i.e rugby gets nearly half the lump sum, rowing, hockey and sailing share roughly another quarter of it, and the final quarter is distributed amongst the other 30+ sports clubs, struggling to keep afloat, they cant pay decent coaches, they cant afford decent training aides and they cant afford transport to competition, the individual then spends a further fortune every year if they are serious about competing, most potential stars don’t have the bucks, so focus on their academics instead) and there is not nearly enough recognition for sporting achievement (the rugby results will be all over within minutes of a game, but if you want to know how the athletics club faired at comrades you have to ask each of them, individually :/ ).
the point of my essay (sorry) is that university sports in South Africa is in an appalling state, and if we want student running to come back into it’s heyday we cannot rely on the university administration to realise our hopes for us, we need to put the incentive there ourselves (as alumni), by offering scholarships, funding sports clubs, sponsoring trophies/prize monies… and it wouldn’t hurt if races offered a prize for first placed students either.
As a student who has been in the system for a few years now, I’d like to add my perspective.
While ‘dop’ and ‘other priorities’ may play some role, an overriding component, which I feel may explain this decline, is the lack of university pride and student involvement. For instance, I (and I’m quite certain others feel the same way) would rather spend only the required amount of time at university. No more. Therefore, when it comes to running, I would rather join a running school closer to home that has no university affiliation. This is exactly what I have done, and it suits me perfectly. I race under their colours, have embraced their ethos, and I enjoy the overall camaraderie. This is a sad observation because it relates back to my first comment about university pride. I feel there is no sense of pride or family at all. A certain ambivalence exists which ultimately deters student runners from joining university teams. As an afterthought, I have actually encountered very few runners of university-going-age. Perhaps, running is just not as popular as it once was and is experiencing a downward-trend with this age group at the moment. As an open-ended conclusion, might I suggest that students are perhaps not interested in running as a sport, and if they are ‘we would rather run with our own schools in the morning, do what we have to do at university from 9am – 5 pm, then go home and play Playstation’.
Ek is n student op die puk, die probleem is dat die univ. se klub onaktief is, daar is nie tydtoetse of enige ander form van aktiwiteit nie, dus is daar baie studente wat eerder by die dorp se klubs aansluit omdat daar ten minste iets is waaraan n mens kan deelneem. Daar is n magdom studente wat hardloop, van 05:30 is die paaie rondom kampus gevul met aktiewe jonge studente.
Kids of today are raised differently, most kids feel like they are worth nothing and drugs cant be to blame, it’s been there for ages…
If you talk to any youngster and say “hey lets go run 1km” I can guarantee you they’ll say “I cant do it” or “I’ll rather sit in front of the TV”.
The lifestyle of today is to blame….people never change, but your surroundings determine who you will become. Clubbing all night has become a lifestyle, thankfully I never fell for it and still strive to live a healthy lifestyle….
That’s my 2cents
Sorry Bruce but Comrades has been a disaster for serious elite athletes in SA. University students should be racing track and cross country. Those who are not speed demons should be concentrating on using track & cross country to better their PB’s over 10km and the half marathon. I know many talented runners at University level who were swept up in “Comrades culture” to run the race at 21 or 22 and then limp away with a piece of bronze and years of injury which, if they are lucky enough, they recovered from to pursue another sport. Most never ran another step! As long as the SA public and major sponsors perceive that jog walking 89kn in 11 hours is somehow more of an achievement than running a sub 28 minute 10km or 2:06 marathon, then the peaks of SA international road running legends will remain with Thugwane, Sinque and Ramaala for many years to come.
@Road Sage
You are missing the point, Saying the Comrades is a disaster is a mockery to the spirit of the Comrades. You cannot blame an event when someone under trains, Comrades builds ones spirit, the Comrades doesn’t break you down, you break only yourself, due to not training properly, anyone can run the comrades and have a joyful day if they actual train properly…
But then, some people are designed to run certain distances, age is not a factor, I was 10 years old when I ran my first 10km and ran it in 50mins…. my dad ran the comrades 3 times, I was 14 then, and I trained everyday with him, doing the same training as him with him…. so it really comes down to who you are and what your capabilities are.
Sorry Christopher – I think you are missing the point of what I am trying to get across. I have nothing against Comrades as a mass participation event. Bruce is lamenting the fact that University students are not taking part. In my books this is a good sign. I was at Wits from 1988 – 1993. We had some serious elites at the track club back then. Those who got caught up in Comrades mania are no longer runners. Those who stuck to track and short to middle distance, appreciating that a 30 minute 10km or sub 63 half marathon is far more of an accomplishment and more difficult to achieve than walk jogging 89km in 11 hours, achieved those goals with unbelievable hard work and dedication. They are only turning to Comrades now, in their mid thirties, and they are top silver and gold medal contenders!! Those who ran in their early 20′s were not under trained and if they did not end up injured from their build up they often finished in the silver but have long since dropped out. The point is that Comrades and ultra running at a young age kills speed and prevents you from achieving your true potential in the long term. See this: http://www.sportsscientists.com/2007/08/story-of-alistair-cragg-indictment-on.html
I’m a female University student (UCT) and i did my 1st Ultra two oceans marathon in April 2012 & i’m very proud of it