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Jun-19-2007
Two Deaths Mar Comrades Marathon
by Riel Hauman
(c) Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
Two runners who participated in the 82nd Comrades Marathon died on Sunday, one during the race and one afterwards. The ultramarathon, which had more than 12,000 entrants, was run over 89.3 km between Pietermaritzburg and Durban.
Michael Gordon (34) died shortly after being helped across the finish line by fellow runners. He apparently suffered a heart attack moments before crossing the line and although he was treated within seconds by the emergency medical team, he was declared dead when he arrived in the fully equipped field hospital in Kingsmead Stadium. It was Gordon's first Comrades.
Willem Malapi (48) finished soon after Gordon and was also helped across the line by other runners. He was taken to the field hospital and then transferred in a critical condition to Durban's St Augustine's Hospital where he died at approximately 20:00 after his heart had stopped for a second time. Malapi was a seasoned runner with 14 Comrades under his belt.
The cause of his death was announced as cardiac arrest after he had suffered an electrolyte imbalance.
Dr Jeremy Boulter, head of the Comrades medical team, said that, apart from these fatalities, it was the "most quiet" Comrades he had experienced in his 28-year involvement in the race. Dehydration and nausea were the main problems experienced by the 478 athletes treated, he said.
One of the prerace favorites for a gold medal (top-10 finish), Riana van Niekerk, abandoned the race at 67 km because she had been suffering from flu beforehand and was not feeling well. She said she did not want to jeopardize her health.
Willie Mtolo, winner of the New York City Marathon in 1992, suffered misfortune of a different kind. Mtolo, who has twice been second in the Comrades, lost half an hour because he heard soon after halfway that his brother's bakkie (small truck) had been stolen.
"I was so shocked that I stopped running there and then," Mtolo said. "It was only thirty minutes later that I felt ready to continue."
His brother, Michael, was a member of his support team. He left his vehicle "for two minutes" near the halfway mark at Drummond, but whe he returned, it was gone. According to Willie, the same truck was broken into during the
2005 race and all his drinks bottles and food were stolen.
Mtolo said he was about 15 minutes behind the leaders when he stopped. He finished 80th in 6:35:01.
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