Brighton Marathon runners go the extra distance after course measurement mix-up

Organisers apologise after participants are forced to run an extra half a kilometre

Organisers of the Brighton Marathon apologised after this year's course was half a kilometre too long. Alamy.

Thousands of runners who took on the Brighton Marathon were forced to run further than they expected as it was revealed this year's course had been 568 metres too long.

Sunday’s run - which was supposed to be exactly 26.2 miles (50 kilometres) in length - eventually finished on the English city's seafront pier, with the winner crossing the line first in two hours and 33 minutes.

However, highly-competitive runners may feel slightly aggrieved about their eventual times after it emerged they had run an extra half-kilometre in error.

In a statement on social media, the organisers released a downbeat statement expressing their “disappointment” that the course measurement had gone wrong.

“We would like to apologise to our marathon participants that the course today has measured 568m too long”, they said in a statement.

“We are wholly disappointed that this has affected our runners & hope that it hasn’t marred the experience, at what has been a fantastic comeback event after 18 months.”

Many of the replies to the post made light of the situation, with some suggesting they had just finished their first ultra-marathon — a catch-all term for races longer than marathon distance.

Verity Hopkins was the fastest woman, with a finishing time of two hours and 52 minutes. The overall winner was Neil McClements, who won with a time of 2:33:44.

It is not the first time a similar running event in the city has been hit by controversy.

In 2017 it was revealed that the Brighton half marathon had been 146m short since 2015, leading to calls for a full refund from some runners.