The London Marathon organisers have announced that their policy of 5 rejections guaranteeing a race place is no longer workable and is to be phased out in excess of the next few marathons.
What exactly this means is, I think, ia that they are merely honouring the 5 time reject rule for the admission to the next 3 races. After that, no more 5 times reject.
For those that do not know, the 5 times rule fundamentally give prospective runners who have been rejected 5 times from consecutive races a guaranteed entry into the 6 race.
It is, they say, because the number of entries make it impossible to guarantee these entrance positions and I can well understand that. As more people enter, more people are falling into this rule and there are less positions available for everyone else, adding to the number of people qualifying.
As part of this they are introducing a priority entry for all prospective runners who were rejected in both the last two ballots. Now this is what I cannot understand! How this helps phase out the system I am not sure, but what it does do is to allow those of us with the required rejections to enter in comfort over the next 10 days, before the mad rush of entries over probably only a few days when entries open properly.
It is also impending that they are reacting to the various bad comments of running forums last year, whereby numerous runners where unable to enter as the online application process was beyond capacity. I did hear of people with 4 rejections not being able to enter, which is a tremendous pity.
On the other hand, this does mean that they are adding to their own problem by making sure that all runners with a couple of rejections can now get their names down for next year’s race. My entrance went through without a difficulty, unlike the entry process for last year!
The concern is although, where will these extra spaces that are freed up go to? Will they be returned to ballot applications to allow more through, or to the highly lucrative charity places, which earn the organisers plenty of money each year and will not benefit the average club runner?
Also, what will happen to the other guaranteed places? The deferrals for hurt runners and the club runner places?
The London Marathon was created to get people running and enjoying running. If excessive emphasis moves towards the charity places then the average club runner will no longer be able to compete, as the thousands needed to gain one of these places is a real ask.
Maybe one day there will be a second London Marathon. But the way the organisers are defending their corner of the market, I doubt it.
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://article2008.com/images/feed-icon.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://article2008.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites