London Marathon Runners called 'Fat' & 'Slow' given a free entry for next year

The 2019 London Marathon held last April is one of the largest marathons in the world and this year, it had a record field of 42,549 finishers.


It wasn't without controversy though as some of the contractors had started to clean up while the marathon was still on. Slower runners said that water stations had been packed away by the time they had reached them.

Participants completing the course in 7h 30m complained that the contractors and marshals had told them to 'hurry up' and used comments such as "if you weren't so fat, you could run," and "this is a race, not a walk".

London Marathon has apologised for this and has said they will implement the following changes...

• Start the clean-up operation later to ensure it will not affect those running at that pace
  Look at the timings of when water was handed out
  Have one of its most senior staff at the back of the race to monitor the event
  Tell contractors of the procedures in place for those running at the slower pace

That have also offered hundreds of slower runners a free entry into next years event.

Full story on the BBC website.