London Marathon becomes elite-only race running laps in St James’ Park | The Guardian

Organisers abandon ‘revolutionary’ mass participation plansCompetitors to run 19.8 laps in park before finish on the MallNext year’s race postponed from normal April slot to OctoberIt is the news that thousands of runners, who have continued to toil and boil throughout lockdown, have long feared: this year’s London Marathon, which had been pushed back from April to October, will no longer be a mass-participation event after plans to use “revolutionary” Bluetooth technology to safely allow 45,000 competitors to social distance were abandoned following a jump in coronavirus cases in the UK.An elite-only, crowd-free race will be staged instead, as first revealed by the Guardian in April, with athletes running 19.8 laps of a looped course in St James’ Park on 4 October before finishing on the Mall as normal. Continue reading…

• Organisers abandon ‘revolutionary’ mass participation plans
• Competitors to run 19.8 laps in park before finish on the Mall
• Next year’s race postponed from normal April slot to October

It is the news that thousands of runners, who have continued to toil and boil throughout lockdown, have long feared: this year’s London Marathon, which had been pushed back from April to October, will no longer be a mass-participation event after plans to use “revolutionary” Bluetooth technology to safely allow 45,000 competitors to social distance were abandoned following a jump in coronavirus cases in the UK.

An elite-only, crowd-free race will be staged instead, as first revealed by the Guardian in April, with athletes running 19.8 laps of a looped course in St James’ Park on 4 October before finishing on the Mall as normal.

Continue reading…