74 vaccinated marathon participants hospitalized in South Africa
As it turns out, the vaccinated injured athletes of the Tour de
France bicycling race (
https://bit.ly/3edjIIB) were joined by
participants in the marathon "Marathon Kamrads" in the amount
of 74 athletes.
The Comrades Marathon has been rocked by another tragedy
of a participant who died while participating in Sunday's down-run.
47-year-old Phakamile Ntshiza, who ran for the Pretoria-based
Adventist Athletic Club, died suddenly while on the course to
Durban. He collapsed shortly before reaching Drummond - the
half-way point of the race - and was declared dead when the
Netcare medical team arrived on the scene.
This follows news earlier in the day that Mzamo Mthembu of the
Hollywoodbets Athletics Club died in a Westville hospital on
Sunday after collapsing just before Pinetown.
(
https://bit.ly/3R5JYTs)
Comrades race director Rowyn James confirmed both deaths to
Sport24 on Monday.
"When our Netcare team had arrived at the scene, the athlete was
declared dead," James said of Ntshiza's death.
"The chairperson of the Comrades Marathon Association has been
in contact with both families.
"Comrades is a family. We have had over 400 000 people run the
race since its inception over 100 years ago, and we are all family.
https://bit.ly/3wK8kKm
"Two deaths are two too many, and our thoughts and condolences
are with the families of the runners who lost their lives."
James added that a total of 74 runners had been transported to
hospital 41 to St Augustine's and 33 to Netcare Umhlanga after
Comrades shut its medical facilities at 20:00 on Sunday night.
Of those, two remain in ICU presently. One is still on a ventilator.
"We're wishing them both a speedy recovery," added James.
