Comrades Marathon Association confirms 2026 entry breakdown after fake news fiasco

The Comrades Marathon Association confirmed the breakdown of entries for next year’s race, after a fake press release on social media inflated the number of novice runners in the 2026 list of entrants, claiming that this had prompted the CMA to reconsider a change in qualifying times.

The false document was released after the general entries for the 2026 Comrades Marathon sold out in less than 10 hours on Monday – a record for the event.

“While this press release looks genuine, even with our official letterhead added, I can confirm that this is fake news,” said CMA general manager Alain Dalais.

“To begin with, the percentage of novice runners provided in this fake statement, 73%, is massively inflated – the actual percentage of novices in the field is 25.8%. And the second sentence literally contradicts the first sentence, by then saying that only 68% of those novices are running the event for the first time. This entire statement is false, and the CMA is not considering any changes to the qualification times.”

Official figures put the number of novice runners who successfully secured entry to the 2026 Up Run from Durban to Pietermaritzburg at 5574. 

The total number of entries accepted was 22399, slightly above the advertised cap of 22000 runners.

“Due to the massive demand for entries, we had a large number of runners who were busy submitting their entries when the entry cap was reached. The CMA has always stood for inclusion and fairness, and we decided to accept those entrants who were already in the final phase of the entry process,” Dalais explained. 

For the record, 2594 entries were claimed by Green Number Club members and CMA members in the ‘early bird’ entry window from October 27 to November 2, and a further 19805 entries were snapped up on Monday.

In spite of the slightly reduced cap and the unprecedented speed at which entries were snapped up, the make-up of the field is largely the same as this year.

There is a noticeable increase, however, in the number of South African runners, who make up 88.8% of the field (19887 runners), compared to 86.7% this year. 

While the percentage of runners form the rest of Africa is unchanged, at 5.5%, there has been a big dip in the number of international runners set to take part in the 99th edition of the race. They make up 5.7% of the field (1232 runners), compared to 7.8% last year. There were 86 countries represented this year, while 75 countries will be represented at next year’s race.

The gender breakdown also reveals a significant increase in the number of women who will take part next year – from 20.4% this year, to 23.2%.

Runners will have one last chance to secure an entry for the 2026 Comrades Marathon, through the Comrades Marathon substitution process. The window for withdrawals will run from March 16-30, while the window for securing the substitute entry is from  April 1-15.

The substitute athlete has to pay the full 2026 race entry fee to the Comrades Marathon Association, while the withdrawing athlete will be charged an administrative fee of 15% of their entry fee, while 85% will be refunded.