Late at night on June 24, Beijing time, the New York Marathon and Berlin Marathon were announced at the same time: 's competition was cancelled this year.
So far, among the six major slams of the World Marathon, Tokyo Marathon has shrunk into an elite race (can it still be called a Grand Slam without a mass runner?), Boston Marathon 124 cancellation for the first time in years. Now the bad news of the cancellation of the Berlin Marathon and the New York Marathon have been heard one after another, and only the final fate of the London Marathon and Chicago Marathon remains to be determined.
Picture description: The only Grand Slam to fire so far this year - the Tokyo Marathon, but there is no mass runner.
, originally scheduled to be held on November 1, was supposed to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2020. The organizing committee made a lot of preparations for this, and the spread of the new crown epidemic has broken all this. The United States is the country with the worst COVID-19 epidemic in the world, while New York is the city with the worst epidemic in the United States, with more than 200,000 confirmed cases. The cancellation of the event was expected.
New Zealand Organizing Committee has not yet determined the final solution, including details such as how to refund, and more information will be announced on July 15. It is roughly certain that the winning runners can choose to refund the money in full or postpone the competition until 2021, 2022 or 2023. The 2021 match date is November 7.
After struggling for more than two months, the Berlin Marathon finally gave up. As early as April, the Berlin Senate decided to ban large-scale events of more than 5,000 people until October 24, and the Berlin Marathon announced that the competition would not be held as scheduled at the end of September, but it was not clear whether to postpone it or completely cancel it. Now that the COVID-19 pandemic is getting worse, the competition will finally be settled.
The policy given by the Berlin Marathon is that winners can choose to postpone the lottery to 2021 or refund the fee. Among the six Grand Slams, only the Chicago Marathon and the London Marathon are left, and they also leave some thoughts for runners. However, the author believes that the cancellation of the Chicago Marathon is nothing more than a matter of time. The Chicago Marathon, which should be held in October, is earlier than the New York Marathon. Although the local epidemic is not as serious as New York, the possibility of going against the trend is extremely small.
The Chicago Marathon Organizing Committee has officially launched a letter of commitment at the official conference a few days ago. It is said that it is impossible to determine whether the 2020 Chicago Marathon can be held as scheduled, but I hope everyone can understand that no matter which result is, the organizing committee will make full preparations for this, and it is obvious that it has given a "vaccine".
The only suspense may be the London Marathon. On June 19, local time, Hugh Brasher, director of the London Marathon in the UK, wrote a letter to the contestants on his official website. The letter mentioned that there are 15 weeks left before the 40th London Marathon on Sunday, October 4, and he hopes that the competition can be held as scheduled. At present, the London Marathon has been informed that the results will be announced on July 28.
