The organisers of the Irish Examiner Cork City Marathon have apologised to participants in the half marathon yesterday.
An incident at the start of the 13.1 mile run saw a number of runners led off course – which added additional distance to the marathon and impacted on the runners’ running times.
Cork City Marathon Race Director, Jim O’Donovan of Cork City Council today apologised and said organisers accepted full responsibility for the incident.
“On behalf of the Cork City Marathon team, I would like to sincerely apologise to the half marathon runners who were affected yesterday by an incident at the beginning of the half marathon,” O’Donovan said.
The problem occurred when an international participant in the wheelchair event went off course close to the half marathon start line.
#ArdMhearaCorcaigh Underway Cork City Half Marathon #iecorkmarathon pic.twitter.com/c83k9lcYlS
— Chris O'Leary (@chrisjoleary) June 6, 2016
Due to the speed of the wheelchair competitor, foot stewards were unable to stop the participant and the motorbike stewards went to redirect the athlete to the correct route.
Half marathon runners who were just starting out then followed the stewarding bikes on to Albert Road which was off course.
Runners sent the wrong way in the 2016 Cork City half-marathon... https://t.co/sxteCMdycc pic.twitter.com/Af1gNhAg4l
— Running in Cork Blog (@runningincork) June 6, 2016
The stewards worked to reroute the runners onto an alternate course and eventually back to the original route. But the diversion added additional time to runner’s finishing times and caused confusion to those familiar with the usual half marathon route.
“We are carrying out a full review of the Half Marathon start and course including stewarding, barriers and lead vehicles,” O’Donovan added. “We will do our utmost to ensure that this will not happen again at Cork City Marathon.”
