The public health crisis that has become an obstacle for large events claimed two more of the world’s biggest marathons on Wednesday, with organizers in New York and Berlin cancelling their marathons this year because of covid-19.
This marathon (New York Road Runners (NYRR)), was sponsored by Indian IT Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), is scheduled on November 1 and the 2020 marathon would have been the 50th one of running the iconic event.
The cancellations were the third sport of its six most important races in 2020, The Boston Marathon was cancelled in may and this situation may continue till we get the medical solution to this crisis due to Covid-19.
The New York City Marathon, one of the prestigious event would have celebrated its 50th anniversary this November. It is one of the highlights in New York and a spectacle for endurance sports, attracting more than 60,000 runners, 15,000 volunteers and roughly a million fans, who will be standing along the way of the 26.2-mile.
City officials and New York Road Runners, which owns and organizes the event, decided conducting this race this year would be very harmful as it will include many people and social distance won’t be maintained here. Public health experts also told have mass events, especially like this will bring people together from across the globe, and will create a dreadful situation by Covid-19. The disease won’t let marathons come back without it. At some point, we are going to be waiting for runners on finish lines again,” said Michael Capiraso, the chief executive of New York Road Runners.
He said he and others involved in this had hoped that their race will happen. They decided to cancel it before having to spend more money to organize it for sanitizing, safety measures etc.
Runners who registered for this race in New York will receive a refund or to they can participate in the next three years. They will also have the option to run virtually from Oct. 17 to Nov. 1. Organizers said they may announce details of this virtual event in mid-July.
In the New York marathon, the runners and thousands of volunteers are transported to a starting line village at Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island, where they stay and wait for the calling to start at the foot of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. The runners wait for a cannon sound to signal the start of the race and begin to run slowly. Till the end.
Many will not be able to finish that way and drop from this marathon. Rest of the people who can run can do it. Anyway, let’s hope this works out next year.
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