London Marathon avoids Just Stop Oil chaos despite snooker carnage

The Grand National: Protesters delay proceedings at Aintree

This year’s London Marathon was free of any disruptive protests following a pre-race discussion between organisers and Extinction Rebellion activists, it has been revealed by event director Hugh Brasher. There were fears ahead of Sunday’s marathon that it would be subjected to the same levels of chaos seen at the Grand National and World Snooker Championship over the last few weeks, although the race ended up running smoothly despite the recent trend of protestors ramping up their tactics at major sporting events.

A member of Just Stop Oil was roundly criticised after releasing a packet of orange dye on one of the tables during a match at the Crucible last week, while scores of Animal Rising activists were arrested for trying to disrupt the Grand National at Aintree earlier this month. Brasher has since revealed that the London Marathon took steps to avoid similar incidents from taking place on Sunday by engaging with the protest groups in question, who then decided to spare the event from any disorderly demonstrations.

“All that has been spoken before about Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil,” said Brasher. “I was in Parliament Square earlier and that was a party. People are celebrating together. Global warming and what we are doing to the planet has to be discussed, [but] we can work together on it.

“Extinction Rebellion proved they have moved onto another phase. The conversations we’ve had with them to ensure that this could happen has been amazing. I stand here excited. Whether it’s athletics, sustainability, or fundraising, I think we will get over £60million for good causes.”

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A four-day demonstration is currently being held by Extinction Rebellion at Parliament Square, which intersects with the marathon route, but no formal action was planned by the group to specifically disrupt Sunday’s race. A number of members even travelled to London and volunteered as stewards in order to quell any unruly protestors by stopping them from wreaking havoc on Sunday following the productive discussions with marathon organisers earlier in the week.

An activist named Michel told The Metro: “I’m supporting the Extinction Rebellion group and today we are helping the event of the London Marathon as a steward because we would like to stop people from disrupting the race.

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“There are a handful of naughty people who would like to block the race to protest about the climate situation. We believe a handful of people might want to do an action to block the race to protest that we are not doing anything for the climate and we would like to stop that because we don’t believe it’s necessary.”

This year’s London Marathon attracted a record-breaking number of participants, with over 48,000 runners covering the 26.2-mile distance from Greenwich to The Mall on Sunday. A new milestone was also set in the elite race when Kelvin Kiptum crossed the line in two hours one minute 25 seconds to smash Eliud Kipchoge’s previous benchmark, while Sifan Hassan produced an impressive run to win the women’s race despite stopping twice in her efforts to battle on against a hip injury.

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