Bungling Marathon of the North organisers send 5,000 runners the wrong way: Only the eventual winner completed the correct course
- Competitors were 264m short of running full marathon because of wrong directions
- Marathon winner Jake Harrison was only runner out of 5,000 who took the correct path
Mark Hood ran the half marathon and won the event. Half and full marathon runners set off at the same time, and Mr Hood led the pack at the point when the error took place
5,000 runners have been told they fell short of completing a marathon last month by just 264m because of an organisational blunder.
Runners in the Marathon of the North took the wrong route along part of the course in Sunderland because they were given the wrong directions.
Organisers said the marshalling error meant all but one of the competitors did not complete the full marathon.
Mark Hood, who won the half marathon event, took the correct route along Sunderland's Stadium of Light
At 26.2 miles, or about 42,000 metres, the marathon course was cut short by just 264m.
This meant around 5,000 runners missed out on running the full length of the marathon or half-marathon courses at the event on April 28.
Event organisers told the Sunderland Echo: 'Regrettably, due to incorrect placing of marshals, which we take full responsibility for, only the lead athlete followed the correct route through the Sheepfold area near the Stadium of Light.
'Unfortunately, the second and third placed runners were not within line of sight of the leader and lead bikes/vehicle.
'This resulted in all those who followed taking an incorrect route through this section.
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Competitors who were running both full or half marathons did not fully complete the required 26.2 miles or 13.1 miles
'Our course measures has now confirmed that 264 metres were therefore lost from the measured route.
'We are sincerely sorry for any confusion and frustration that this has caused.'
The organisers said they are offering the affected runners 25% off entry to other events and said they hoped the error would not put competitors off future participation.
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