Yahoo News This UK marathon plans to go ahead in September
Organisers of the New Forest Marathon 2020 are planning to go ahead with their annual event on September 13.
The race, which runs around the national park in Hampshire, is set to take place following government guidance and with contingency plans should the event need to be moved or cancelled.
In a statement on their Facebook page, race organisers said: ‘The location of the Race Village is purpose-built for events.
‘It offers a large expanse of space to accommodate various options for parking and movement of people subject to social distancing guidelines. The event is restricted to 5000 runners (small in comparison to other running events such as London or Brighton. Running 5000 runners through the forest is very different than running 30,000 through a city).
‘This allows us the opportunity to spread out participants and carry out the races without mass starts or large crowds.’
The statement also said that the organisers have a number of contingency options to meet government guidelines and to keep attendees, staff and volunteers safe.
‘At this point we are however in the hands of the government and await further guidance on events,’ they concluded.
The announcement has been welcomed by runners with mixed feelings, some being excited and looking forward to start training for the event, others wondering if they could defer their place to next year amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus.
At the moment, the Government have not shared guidelines on when large-scale sporting events are likely to resume.
Like this article? Sign up to our newsletter to get more articles like this delivered straight to your inbox.
You Might Also Like
