The 2026 Comrades Marathon has set a new entry record, with the Comrades Marathon Association confirming that general entries for this year's up-run between Durban and Pietermaritzburg sold out in less than 24 hours — the fastest closure in the 101-year history of the world's largest ultramarathon. The substitution ballot that opened in late April to redistribute withdrawn entries has now closed too, with 4,832 verified runners chasing only 2,444 available slots, a ballot ratio of nearly two to one for places that in previous years were handed out on a first-come, first-served basis.
The new ballot model was introduced for 2026 after years of complaints that the substitution scramble was effectively a broadband-speed test. Runners with patchy mobile connections in rural KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and parts of greater Johannesburg said the old system rewarded city-centre runners with fast home internet, and several of the largest Comrades clubs lobbied the CMA at last year's Conference of Captains to switch to a draw. Successful applicants were notified by email at the weekend and have until 16:30 South African time on 4 May to upload qualifying-race details and a 2026 club-licence number, or their entries will be cancelled.
Comrades chief executive Gavin Snelgar told local media that demand has tracked the 2025 record up-year for South African road running, when SA Athletics reported a 19 percent increase in licence numbers issued nationwide. "Our broader concern was that the old system was excluding the very communities Comrades was created to celebrate," Snelgar said. "We have a duty to make the start line as accessible as the finish, and that begins with how an entry is allocated." The CMA also confirmed that international entries — capped under a separate quota — were oversubscribed for the first time, with applications from the United Kingdom, the United States and Brazil all up year on year.
Sunday 14 June will mark the 99th running of Comrades and the second up-year in succession that the race climbs from Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban to the Scottsville Racecourse finish in Pietermaritzburg. The 86-kilometre, hill-loaded route includes the Big Five — Cowies, Field's, Botha's, Inchanga and Polly Shortts — and a 12-hour cut-off at the gun. Defending men's champion Piet Wiersma of the Netherlands and women's champion Gerda Steyn, who has signalled an attempt at her own up-run record this year, will both line up. Steyn told Runner's World South Africa earlier this month that her up-run target is "everything inside 5:50" — an oblique reference to the 5:44:54 women's up-run record set by Frith van der Merwe in 1989 that has stood for nearly four decades.
For the runners who missed the ballot, the CMA has reopened a small charity-entry pool through the Comrades Marathon Charity Drive, with 200 places auctioned to support the Children's Hospital Trust, Hillcrest AIDS Centre and the Phelophepa Healthcare Train among other partners. A further wait-list will run through May to absorb late withdrawals on medical grounds. With the field now expected to top 22,500 starters — a number that would push Comrades back ahead of the JFK 50 and Two Oceans for the world's largest ultramarathon by participation — the question for organisers shifts from access to logistics, and to whether the city of Pietermaritzburg's transport and finish-area infrastructure can absorb a return to pre-pandemic crowding for the first time since 2019.