Cape Town - The TotalSports Two Oceans Marathon (TOM) organisers on Tuesday acknowledged the concerns raised by the Christian community over road closures on Easter Sunday.
The half marathon will be held on Saturday, while the ultra marathon will be held on Sunday. With the race being staged for the first time since 2019 due to Covid-19, splitting the 56km and 21.1km events over two days was necessary said organisers.
“The decision to split the annual event over two days over the Easter Weekend has had unintended consequences on an important day for the Christian community, for which we sincerely apologise,” said organisers.
“This was to ensure the safety of all runners, suppliers and staff involved in the event, to meet the necessary compliance mandates required by the Covid-19 Risk Management Strategy; and to allow both races to start early so that roads that had been closed could be reopened as early as possible.”
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Organisers said they had developed a detailed Traffic Management Plan which prioritises minimising road closures and allowing access to places of worship over Easter Weekend, specifically on Easter Sunday.
This Traffic Management Plan has been distributed to all churches in the route precinct and has been published on the Two Oceans website, www.twooceansmarathon.org.za, under both the News and Events sections.
Alternatively, members of the public can click here to see the road closures.
IOL sport