'Comrades is Russians' cash cow'

Many elite athletes from eastern Europe see the Comrades Marathon only as an opportunity to make "big money".

So says Sergey Krasnoshchekov, director of the Universal Sports management company in Moscow, who is in dispute with a number of top Russian athletes over their participation at Comrades.

Krasnoshchekov, who was instrumental in bringing all-conquering eastern European athletes to Comrades when it first opened its doors to professional runners in the mid- to late-1990s, has called the morality of certain Russian stars in to question.

"Three years ago, I signed a management contract with the Nurgalieva twins (Olesya and Elena) in the presence of two witnesses, and the contract was valid until 17 June 2006," he said from Moscow on Monday.

"When they were offered 'a better deal', they told me that they did not have contractual obligations for me."

The twins, former Olympians in cross country snow skiing, first came to Comrades in 2003 and have since all but dominated the event, the 2006 edition of which takes place on Friday.

Elena won the women's race in 2003, with her identical twin second, and successfully defended her title a year later. Last year, Olesya was second and Elena third, behind another Russian, Tatyana Zhirkova.

Elena Nurgalieva and defending champion Zhirkova will again be the women to beat this week. Olesya is absent because of other commitments.

But the twins are not the only athletes Krasnoshchekov has a gripe with.

"A very similar thing happened with Tatyana Zhirkova," he said. "My South African lawyer has an original copy of the contract I have with Zhirkova that is still valid.

"It is quite sad that big money dramatically changes the morality of 'elite' runners and they do not respect thepeople who found them, brought them to South Africa - in the case of the twins, on my expense - and played a significant role in their success."

This year, Krasnoshchekov comes "armed" with another batch of leading Russians who'll be turning out for the Pretoria-based Harmony club.

Among the women in his entourage are 2001 Comrades winner Elvira Kolpakova, who was seventh last year, and sixth-placed Marina Myshlyanova.

His men's line-up includes Oleg Kharitonov, who finished second in 2005 and 2003 and third in 2004, and Mikhail Kokorev, who returns to the race after a string of top 15 finishes in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The participation of eastern Europeans at Comrades has always been controversial.

The matter reached boiling point a couple of years ago when employees of the Durban-based Mr Price clothing company staged a protest at the race, claiming they were being paid minimum wage while the foreign athletes were on incentive bonuses running into hundreds of thousands of rands.

This year, Mr Price athletes have been offered a R500 000 win bonus and the same amount to break the course record.

And that's over and above the R200 000 winner's purse for men and women.

Mr Price's men's charge this year will be led by Cape Town-based Belarusian Vladimir Kotov, who'll be going for a fourth consecutive up run victory.