Galway City Marathon cancelled

The Galway City Marathon, due to take place on 28 August, in Ireland has been cancelled amid local controversy. An article by Declan Varley in the Galway Advertiser provides the details, summarised below:
During the impasse between the City Council and the organisers of the now-cancelled Galway City Marathon one of the most hurtful barbs thrown was the allegation by former mayor Michael Crowe that the organisers did not honour a commitment to donate marathon funds to sporting clubs and athletes in the city.

Documentary evidence seen by the Advertiser and discussions held with various clubs and athletes has shown that many athletes, clubs and charities have benefitted from the generosity of the organisers Richard and Paul Donovan. The Donovans not only honoured the commitment to pass on a 2 euro capitation fee but paid a large multiple of the amount to Sports Partnership-registered clubs and athletes, donating more than €20,000. An additional €3,000 was given to GOAL charity, €3,000 to UltraRunning Ireland and €2,000 to Irish Schools Athletics.

The donation to the Sports Partnership was not a prerequisite for last year’s Marathon. Richard Donovan said: “[Cllr Crowe] seems to want to take credit for the initiative. However, it was a voluntary undertaking by us and we simply informed the Council in advance. During the past week, people on the street were assuming we didn’t make a promised donation to a club or charity. Cllr Crowe decided to maliciously implant this falsehood in people’s minds."

In a lengthy statement Cllr Crowe told The Advertiser that he withdraws the allegations that the funding commitment was not met.

Galway City Marathon 2010 witnessed elite milers, marathon and ultra marathon athletes in the city, which resulted in the fastest road mile in Ireland in 2010, the second fastest marathon time (next to Dublin) and a World 50km Final championship best. Runner’s World, the biggest selling running magazine in the world, declared that the race could ultimately rival Dublin as Ireland’s marathon destination.

Richard Donovan said he feels that the City Council has behaved badly in the past week. “ It's bad enough that they didn’t support us but I would have appreciated if they didn’t obstruct us and if they didn't make false statements in an attempt to justify what they had done. The council agreed to our dates a year previously and reconfirmed them earlier this year, but on 8 April wrote saying: 'I regret to advise you that the dates noted in your publicity together with the revised start/finish locations in 2011 cannot be accommodated by the City Council'.

This was followed by an email on 11 April stating: 'Ironman is effectively taking over Salthill during the week after your event and this is why your date together with the start/finish locations are a problem'.”
Cllr Crowe says that many meetings were held regarding the Ironman event and that he did not show favouritism to one over another.

For Declan Varley's full story in the Galway Advertiser, click here.

Source: AIMSworldrunning.org