The Montreal marathon was delayed by 50 minutes Sunday morning due to a lack of staff to secure the course.
The first racers of the 42.2 km Marathon Oasis de Montréal event were supposed to begin the race at 7:10 a.m. but were only able to begin almost an hour later, at 8 a.m.
Montreal police came in to fill the lack of security for the event. Event organizer Dominic Piché told the press he took full responsibility for the lack of organization.
Marathon participants weren’t happy about the delay, saying it negatively affected their warm-up and nutrition efforts.
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“We are sitting around for an extra 45 minutes and you kind of tighten up. You warm up and you end up just sitting,” said marathon runner Waren Isfan.
Piché apologized to the runners, saying the marathon could not start until all the course barricades were secured.
Nearly 18,000 participants were enrolled in Sunday’s five marathon events.
Kenyan athlete Boniface Kongin won the marathon, finishing the 42.2 km race in two hours, 15 minutes and 18 seconds. Morocco’s Mohamed Aagab came in second and fellow Kenyan Isaac Maiyo came in third.
The race kicked off at the intersection of René-Lévesque and Saint-Urbain streets and finished at Place des Arts. Thousands of spectators, friends and relatives of the marathon participants were present on the sidelines of Sunday’s event.
The marathon began on Saturday with more family-friendly events.
–With files from Global’s Brayden Jagger Haines and The Canadian Press
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