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Running, like many other sports, is having many negative repercussions due to the global pandemic. The last, the most painful: the New York marathon, in 2020, will not take place. The most popular of all the marathons in the world, which would have celebrated the 50th edition on November 1st 2020 has been officially postponed to 2021.
As for the Berlin marathon scheduled for 27 September 2020. The two announcements were made one after the other in a matter of minutes. The organizers of both events hoped for as long as they could, then, in the face of the evidence, gave up.
Too many victims and consequences of the pandemic. As well as related restrictions on mass events. Members will be offered the possibility of a refund or the opportunity to compete in the next editions. The other big marathons are not up to date: for now the London on October 4th 2020 and the Chicago marathon, on October 11th 2020 are confirmed, but these too risk being canceled.
In New York, since the first edition of 1970, the marathon was canceled only once, in 2012, when Hurricane Sandy arrived in New York. There will be no celebration for the 50th edition of the event across the five districts of the Big Apple.
From Staten Island, on the Verrazzano bridge, upon arrival in Manhattan, Central Park, the more than 50,000 participants will not animate the famous streets of New York. There will be no parties, but they are only postponed until next year.
What fate for London and Chicago marathons?
"Although the marathon is an iconic and much-loved event, I applaud the decision of the organizers of the New York Road Runners: the health and safety of athletes and crowds must come first.
We look forward to November 7, 2021," said the mayor Bill de Blasio. Number 1 of the organization of the event Michael Capiraso said: "We are incredibly disappointed, but we could not do otherwise." Same fate also for the Berlin marathon.
The edition is postponed to 2021: there are no conditions of security to host an event of this magnitude. Also in some county of germany there are new clusters of Covid-19. In Berlin, on an extremely fast course, 11 world records were marked, all the last seven being men's.
From Germany they said: "In the past few weeks we have probed all the possibilities, but since at least until October 24, in Germany, all events with 5000 or more participants are canceled, we have no alternative." Now we expect news for the marathons in London, Chicago and Rome: the signs are not positive.
Most likely even these events will be canceled and postponed to 2021, as to date there would be no conditions of discretion necessary to guarantee the health of the athletes and the crowd present, as there are several thousand present.