London Marathon 2020 will be postponed from April to October due to coronavirus, organisers confirm

The London Marathon race will be postponed six months amid the ‘global pandemic’ of the killer coronavirus, organisers confirmed today.

London Marathon Events said the world’s biggest 26.2mile run, which attracts 45,000 racers from across the planet, will take place on October 4.

The decision comes as the life-threatening bug, which claimed its eleventh UK life earlier, sinks Britain into hysteria – and the world into terror and chaos.    

Events director Hugh Brasher conceded the news would be ‘disappointing’ for ‘runners who have trained for months, the thousands of charities for which they are raising funds, and the millions who watch the race every year’.

But the London Marathon boss said ‘public health is everyone’s priority’ as the world ‘grapples with a global pandemic of Covid-19’. 

The events director confirmed that all participants and charities will be emailed today before updating them ‘by the end of next week at the latest’. 

All runners with a place in the 2020 Virgin Money London Marathon will be able to use their place in the rescheduled event without any further payment.

Those who have a place for this year’s event and choose not to take part, or are unable to do so, on the rescheduled date will receive a refund of their entry fee or, if they wish, they may donate it to The London Marathon Charitable Trust.

London Marathon Events came under huge pressure to postpone the race after a charity boss-in-training urged for the 26.2mile run to be delayed. 

Theresa Dauncey, chief executive of the National Brain Appeal, said it is a ‘non-essential voluntary’ event that would put a ‘huge strain’ on key services in the city.

Earlier today, the UK’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said it is ‘eye-catching’ to order the cancellation of mass gatherings and sporting events but the chances of contracting the disease by attending such occasions are slim.

He told the BBC: ‘Mass gatherings do have some impact, it is not that they don’t do anything if you stop them. But they are very much more minor than the other ones.

‘The most likely place you are going to get an infection from is a family member, a friend, someone very close in a small space, not in the big space.’

Sir Patrick added: ‘It is sort of eye-catching to say “stop those” [but] it is not actually a big effect on the transmission. That is not to say we wouldn’t do it at some point but it is not the most important thing to get into place first.’

Previously, Health Secretary Matt Hancock suggested that the London Marathon – marking its 40th run this year – ‘might have to’ cancel or delay. 

He had said that the April 26 was in serious jeopardy because of the then risk of the coronavirus outbreak turning into a global pandemic. 

Since Mr Hancock’s early warnings, the World Health Organization designated Covid-19 a pandemic as it took aim at Governments for their ‘inaction’.  

Director-General of the UN agency Dr Tedros Adhanom also blasted governments for ignoring repeated WHO pleas to take urgent and aggressive action, with cases of the deadly illness outside of China having risen 13-fold in the space of a fortnight because of escalating crises in Italy, Iran, Spain, Germany, and France.

The WHO said: ‘Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. 

‘It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death.’

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