FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Pat Butcher
+44 7900 243460
BEIRUT MARATHON RISES FROM THE ASHES
A month ago, with a naval blockade still in place, and residual skirmishes
on the Lebanon-Israel frontier, it seemed highly unlikely that the BLOM
Bank Beirut Marathon would be back on the road before the end of next year.
But that was not counting on Lebanese resilience and enterprise. The fourth
edition of the event will go ahead as planned, in two months' time, on
November 26, 2006.
"Only a short section of the marathon course, through Dahyeh, is in ruins,"
reports new race director, Mark Dickinson. "And the government has promised
that the roads will be cleaned and fixed by November". Dickinson says he
expects up to 25,000 people from home and abroad responding to the call to
compete.
May El Khalil, the race founder and president has relaunched the event
under the rubric, Kermalak Ya Loubnan, For the Love of Lebanon. Responding
to the best wishes of government ministers and sponsors, she said,
"Cancelling the event as a consequence of war is an option, but that is not
for us. Today, more than ever, sport is needed to fill the squares with the
public, allowing us to say to the whole world, we can run and win".
A month of Israeli bombardment, from mid-July left much of southern Beirut
and southern Lebanon in ashes, displacing close to one million people.
During that time the Beirut Marathon Association joined the Lebanese
Ministry of Social Affairs and UNICEF in their efforts to provide
psycho-social relief to traumatized and depressed children. The BMA
organised two sporting programmes for children and displaced families. The
programme lasted two weeks, and involved 600 children.
The principal charitable cause for this year's race will be for the victims
of cluster-bombs, which are still claiming lives, the vast majority of
which are children.
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