ORGANISERS of the Reading Half Marathon are still planning for the event to go ahead, although the London Marathon has been postponed.
Goldline Events said that they have closely monitoring developments of the Coronavirus and taking note of all UK Government guidance.
In a statement posted yesterday by race director Judith Manson, they said that felt “there is no need or medical justification for event cancellation or postponement. As such, we continue our efforts in the planning of the race, Sunday 5 April 2020.”
The statement was referred to in a tweet today, noting: “As/when/if the situation changes, we will update accordingly.”
“We are fully aware that the outbreak is continuously evolving and the uncertainty on the matter is challenging for all involved; we appreciate the hard work and efforts by all, but our main priority is the health and safety of race participants, spectators, volunteers, operation teams and partner agencies,” the statement added.
It continued: “We want to reassure our runners that, in collaboration with our partners, we are currently discussing a number of contingency plans and safety measures and thank everyone for their patience and understanding at this time.
“Please rest assured that all runners will be advised through the official channels, if and when we receive notice of a UK-wide ban on large scale events.
“To pre-empt this situation, we are already in discussions with our key partners and stakeholders to postpone the event to a later date.
“At this stage it’s too early to give any further details on this matter. However, we appreciate that it’s not just race entry at stake, our runners will have made travel and accommodation plans for the event.
“We continue to monitor developments on an hourly basis and incorporate public health guidance into both our plans and risk assessment for race weekend.”
If the race is postponed, it will be the second time that the scheduled event has not taken place. In 2018, heavy snow meant that the course was considered to be unsafe to run, and the race was pulled at the last minute.
