Athletics South Africa (ASA) today announced a very first offering of an incentive scheme aimed at South African runners taking part in this weekend’s Nedbank South African Half Marathon Championships being held in Port Elizabeth.

Apart from the prize money at stake in the Championships, Athletics South Africa has announced that lucrative incentives totalling R480 000 will be available for South African men and women runners. This is over and above the customary position prize money which is payable to all runners irrespective of their nationality.  A new South African record for men (60:07) or women (66:44) will be rewarded with  an extra R150 000 while men running  a sub 61:00 time will net the first runner R75 000 the second  R50 000 and the third R30 000. For women runners to earn these incentives a sub 68:00 time will be required.  A sub 61:30 time for men will earn the first three runners R25 000, R15 000 and R 10 000 while a sub 62:00 will earn the first three runners R8 000, R6 000 and R4 000 respectively. Women will have to record times of sub 70 minutes and sub 72 minutes respectively to qualify for these incentives.

“ASA is geared towards motivating its athletes to be top performers. We believe that our athletes possess the talent to be amongst the best in the world. It is therefore our hope that these incentives will help in breaking the monotony of foreign athletes dominating local races,” said ASA President, Leonard Chuene.

The Championships also serve as trials to select a provisional team that will represent South Africa at the IAAF World Half Marathon in Birmingham on 11 October 2009.