Little more than a year since the last World Athletics Series drew to a close, the focus of the athletics world will fall on Poland on 17 October when it hosts the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020.
The mass race has now become a virtual one (to enter, simply click on the banner below), but the elite contest remains relatively unaltered and has attracted some of the biggest names in distance running, including Uganda’s world 10,000m champion Joshua Cheptegei, world 1500m and 10,000m champion Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, and women’s world record-holders Ababel Yeshaneh and Peres Jepchirchir.
Having already hosted World Athletics Series events on the track outdoors and indoors, as well as at cross country, this will be the first time Poland has hosted a global athletics event on the roads. And with the finish line area located on the sandy beach in the heart of ‘the city of dreams and sea’, it is bound to be a memorable event.
Organisers of the Beirut Marathon, a World Athletics Silver Label road race, are holding a virtual 5km run during the first week of October to raise money for the 300,000+ people whose lives were affected by the tragic explosion in Beirut on 4 August. Every registration or donation will assist the Lebanese Red Cross with their efforts. Click on the banner further down this newsletter for more information.
