Organisers apologise after city marathon runners ran too far
THIS year’s Newport Marathon was accidentally too long, a review by official course measurers has confirmed. The event, operated by Run 4 Wales, took place on Sunday, April 28 and on the morning of Wednesday, May 8 the organisers confirmed the error and apologised “unreservedly” to those impacted.
The course was erroneously 276m too long, equating to 0.171 miles. There was no issue with the associated half marathon and 10K course measurements. Participants had been raising concerns in the days since the event after suspecting they had run a “little bit extra.” For the latest Welsh news delivered to your inbox sign up to our newsletter.
In a statement, ABP Newport Marathon Festival said: “We’ve been looking into reports around the accuracy of the Marathon course distance at the Newport Marathon Festival on Sunday, April 28.
“This issue has been taken very seriously and we have been having an ongoing dialogue with the Course Measurer/ Association of UK Course Measurers (AUKCM).
“Unfortunately, the AUKCM has concluded that there was an error with their course measurement, resulting in the Marathon being 276m too long, which equates to 0.171 miles.
“Run 4 Wales is disappointed that this has happened at one of its events and understands and apologies unreservedly to those impacted, particularly those aiming for good for age qualifying times. For this reason, we have been working with London Marathon Events who have agreed that times will be amended for those applying for a Good for Age entry at the TCS London Marathon, should the athlete have been affected in gaining a place.”
Good for Age entry is available to London Marathon hopefuls who run a specified qualifying time for their age group at a certified marathon event.
An equivalent number of seconds will be removed from the Newport Marathon finish times of those applying for this for instance, a three-hour finish time will be corrected automatically by approximately 70 seconds.
Responses were largely positive on social media, with one person commenting: “Well done the organisers for investigating and admitting there was a mistake” and another adding: “Mistakes happen, but communication and feedback acceptance from Run 4 Wales is at elite level.”
Some were frustrated, asking for all finish times to be adjusted.
One said: “I like many others trained hard all winter, and would like to see my official PB time as a reward for all the hard work I put in,” while one joked: “Well done everyone on completing your ultra marathon.”