COVID-19: London Marathon mass race to be cancelled, elite race on

LONDON: The mass participation London Marathon has been cancelled due to COVID-19 but an elite-only race, on a short loop on a fan-restricted circuit and featuring Eliud Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele, will be held on Oct 4, sources said on Thursday .

The race, which normally attracts almost 40,000 runners and raises millions of pounds for charity, was originally postponed from April as the ongoing complications caused by the pandemic – not least the potential infection risk caused by hundreds of thousands of fans lining the route through central London – meant that hosting it was impracticable.

It is set to confirm that an elite-only race will be held on a multi-lap course in and around a central London park, with controlled access to limit fan numbers, and headlined by the only two men to have gone under two hours, two minutes for the marathon, Defending champion Kipchoge, who became the first man to run a sub-two hour marathon in an unofficial race in Vienna last October, is seeking a record fifth London title.

He has won 11 of the 12 marathons he has started, including the 2016 Olympics in Rio, and holds the official world record of 2:01:39.Bekele has three Olympic and five world championship golds over 10,000m and 5,000m, distances in which he still holds the world record, as well as an astonishing 11 cross country world championship golds.Source: Reuters/dv

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