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1 week ago | 
runningmann.co.za | Stuart Mann
Doing what I do and writing what I write about, I receive sporadic legal letters. Fortunately, I have a fantastic attorney in Mark Leathers who dispatches the attempted ‘shake downs’ with the disdain that they deserve. I connected with Mark during the Comrades crisis following the 2024 event when he offered his services to me on a pro bono basis in the fight against the attempted capture of the Comrades Marathon.
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1 week ago | 
runningmann.co.za | Stuart Mann
A runner from Old Edwardian Athletics Club who would prefer to remain anonymous sent me an email with detailed and irrefutable proof showing that a serial offender, Anthony Naguriah, had cheated in previous Two Oceans ultra marathons and would be running (and presumably cheating) again in 2025. The same runner has also been publicly exposed as cheating in qualifier marathons and at Comrades.
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1 week ago | 
runningmann.co.za | Stuart Mann
I received a tipoff about an Instagram influencer who cheated her way into the A batch at the Two Oceans half marathon.
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1 week ago | 
runningmann.co.za | Stuart Mann
Below are the comprehensive set of questions that I sent to the Two Oceans Board. The Chair gave the organisation a self-scored mark of 95% (noting that there were “5% of things we could have done better”). I think that this set of questions provides a better examination of the Board’s performance in 2025. Any independent invigilators out there willing to give them a passing grade?
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2 weeks ago | 
runningmann.co.za | Stuart Mann
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.
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2 weeks ago | 
runningmann.co.za | Stuart Mann
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.
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2 weeks ago | 
runningmann.co.za | Stuart Mann
After all the doom and gloom from the worst organised Two Oceans of all time, I thought I’d end the week on a positive note. I had read about Marissa Groenewald, aka #TheRopeRunner, but seeing her in action was incredibly impressive – it looked like she was floating along. We had a quick chat whilst descending Chappies. I asked her how much harder is skipping than just running normally – she reckons it’s about three times more difficult.
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2 weeks ago | 
runningmann.co.za | Stuart Mann
Reports were that no one who finished in the last 30 minutes of the Two Oceans half marathon received a medal – that means that they were at least 2410 medals short. Two Oceans’ published entry cap on the 2025 half was 17000. Their permit with the City of Cape Town allowed them to have 17,000 runners. However, there were 17,677 official finishers plus an additional 400 runners who started the race but did not finish before the 3h30 final cutoff.
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3 weeks ago | 
runningmann.co.za | Stuart Mann
This article provides detailed information on all South Africa’s May 2025 marathons including race descriptions and recommendations. You can find the full 2025 marathon / ultra calendar here. A summary of your choices is below:As May rolls around, those who need a last-minute qualifier for Comrades, want to try and upgrade their seeding or just want a ‘training run’ marathon have eight options to choose from.
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3 weeks ago | 
runningmann.co.za | Stuart Mann
I asked 41-time Two Oceans ultra marathon finisher Mark Raubenheimer for a “few quotes, comments and / or anecdotes” on Ian Benson for the article I was writing on Ian’s 40th Two Oceans. A couple of days later Mark sent me back an email saying, “I think I ended up going down a rabbit warren when you reached out to me.
