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6 Apr 2014

Runners defy health and safety closure of Sheffield race

The Sheffield Half Marathon organisers prompted outrage when they cancelled the event after a problems with the delivery of water. Thousands of “rebel runners” decided to race anyway.

The cancellation of the race was announced on Sheffield’s Half Marathon Twitter and Facebook accounts earlier today, 45 minutes after the race was due to start.

“It is with huge dissapointment & regret that we have been forced to cancel this year’s race due to a problem with the delivery of water,” a post said (sic).

It added: “We would like to express our sincerest apologies to everyone involved in the race who will be affected. We will update you future plans asap”.

Margaret Lilley, chair of the race organisers, told the BBC: “We had a problem with the supply of water.

“The company we had asked to supply bowsers for the route did not arrive this morning.

“We have scoured supermarkets around the city, but unfortunately we have not been able to secure enough water for the medical-and-safety officers of the race to say it is safe to go ahead. We therefore took the very reluctant decision to cancel the race.”

Ms Lilley added: “Runners had waited half an hour or more to start. When we made the announcement the runners decided that they wanted to race anyway, and all 5,000 of them set off.”

Rebel runners

There was an angry response to the announcement of the cancellation from many runners who had trained for months to be there.

However as the thousands of “rebel runners” took to the streets anyway many citizens and shops came out and offered water to them.

The Sheffield Marathon Twitter account has since tweeted: “Those who crossed the finish line with their race number will be timed & we’ll be providing a list of all finishers & their times”.