Charity runner kicked off London Marathon over duplicate name
A WOMAN has been barred from entering the London Marathon after an administrative error because she shares a name with another runner.
Sarah Wilson, 25, from London, trained for more than three months and raised more than £1,400 for the St John Ambulance before being told she could no longer run.
The charity deleted her from its list of runners, she explained, because a junior member of staff assumed her name was a duplicate.
Hundreds of people, including Paula Radcliffe, the three-time race champion, have begged the organisers to let Ms Wilson run her first marathon.
“I was signed up to the 2018 marathon and I was injured last year, so I had to defer my place,” Ms Wilson, a sales operations analyst, explained.
“Then I got confirmation for my place in the 2019 marathon … When I called up on Monday to find out when I get my running gear from them they basically said ‘We only have one Sarah Wilson on the system and she’s from York’.
“Someone junior thought it was a duplicate and deleted me off the system. I was told I was not allowed to run and nothing could be done, even though they have 170 people running on charity places and have accepted it’s an admin error. I contacted London Marathon directly and they said the rules are the rules and they’re in place for a reason because it’s such a big event.”
The young woman has already almost managed to meet her target fundraising amount of £1,800 by campaigning online and organising bake sales.
She added: “I spoke to the other Sarah Wilson on Twitter and she said she was really sorry to hear what had happened, no one can believe they can’t do anything.”
Hugh Brasher, event director for London Marathon Events, said: “It is unfortunate that from time to time people make errors. However, the absolute deadline for entries to the 2019 London Marathon was Feb 1.
“We strive for fairness and integrity and as a result uphold our rules of entry on every occasion.”