London set to miss out on mass-participation marathon in 2012 26/08/2009 |
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The appointment this month of the London Marathon's organisers as coordinators of the Olympic road race in 2012 has revived suggestions of providing a mass-participation element to the event.
The International Association of Athletics Federations' president, Lamine Diack, hailed the decision to finish the marathons at the world athletics championships in Berlin outside the stadium as "a great success". It meant a 10km fun run could be accommodated along the elite course after the men's race.
Excited talk of having club and fun runners simultaneously on London's Olympic course was buzzing among senior athletics sources earlier this year but London 2012 declares itself "absolutely committed" to a three-lap course for the Olympic marathon in the capital.
That would rule out a mass-participation race so as not to have Paula Radcliffe held up by pantomime horses on her second circuit, and is being justified on the basis that spectators would get to see the runners more often, although anyone wishing to do so on a snaking course could surely just hop on the Tube.
Athletics has recently suffered controversies with drugs and gender issues but the chance for the Games' blue-riband sport to confer the "good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles" set out in the Olympic charter would surely be too good to miss. Not so for 2012, it seems, whose "absolute commitment" looks set to deny the Olympics a great goodwill opportunity to raise tens of millions of pounds for charitable causes.
(Source: Guardian.co.uk)
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