Cebu Marathon medals all 42k and 25k finishers regardless of time. It waived the cut-off time rule after a number of finishers complained they did not get the medal for finishing on time.
Win-win solution. Not quite. It trivializes feat of the faster feet and cheapens worth of the worthy and humors the unworthy. A road race separates the fast, serious and the furious, or those hungry for supremacy, from the slow, envious or curious or those content with running without winning. Or for photographs.
No competitive competitor joins a competition where everyone wins. Unless it is an exhibition match between and among has-beens where results are non-bearing. Or a parlor game where participation is in itself winning. Just for fun. Or be made fun of. During parties. Ugh.
But a marathon tests speed and endurance. If everybody gets rewarded just the same, it condones mediocrity, which is anathema to athletic supremacy. Happy all is damage control, which wisdom is best gauged by participation in the next edition. Not even, there are runners willing to receive an award they do not deserve.
This brings back the iconic century dash in the 1993 worlds where Merlene Ottey and Gail Devers finished in dead heat. It took athletics officials almost an hour to discern the photo finish.
To the naked eye, Ottey appeared to lean her body enough to beat Devers. The torso must cross the line first, neither the head, arms nor legs. But Devers dipped her head to win by a hairline. Literally. Both sprinters identically timed at 10.82 seconds, broken down to a thousandth of a second. Devers was faster by the wink of an eye or the flap of a wing by 0.001.
The world athletics body deliberated whether to award two gold medals to the virtual co-equals but was short of one vote to declare a tie. It could have been the fitting reward to the Jamaican, the most consistent sprinter who won 57 100m finals in a row, only to lose in the worlds and the Olympics.
But no, it is not about a sentimental favorite, it is about who crossed the finish line first. Period. No accommodation, sprints are decided by an electronic photo finish, not by human discretion. Marathon too, where thousands of competitors finish the race in different placements. If everyone ends in the same position as they started, including those who quit, it is not a race. It is grace. Or disgrace.
Sports excellence is averse to sharing. Imagine a monarchy. There could only be one king or queen to the throne. Especially the queen. The wife and mother-in-law should never share one queendom. They reign in different eras. The mother births and raises her son and later bequeaths him to the wife. Whether the son becomes king or slave in the hands of a stranger is another matter altogether. Imagine more if thousands of runners are minted the same regardless of time and placement. That is not democracy. That is illusory.