Paris Marathon cancelled after coronavirus hits travel plans

Paris, August 12

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The Paris Marathon has been cancelled because of the coronavirus after repeated attempts to find a new date, organisers said Wednesday.

The race was originally due to take place in April but was then moved to October.

Organisers said they’d recently tried to rearrange the race for November but continuing travel restrictions made that unrealistic.

“Faced with the difficulty that many runners, especially those coming from abroad, had in making themselves available for the 14th/15th November, it was decided that it would be better and simpler for those concerned if we organised the Schneider Electric Marathon de Paris in 2021,” organisers said in a statement.

They will now focus on the 2021 edition of the race. Runners who were registered for this year’s race will be automatically signed up for next year.

The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on the international marathon calendar, given the large numbers of runners typically involved and the difficulty of maintaining any social distancing. Some races like Berlin have been cancelled outright and others like London have been restricted to elite runners only. AP