London Marathon chiefs investigate 'horrific' abuse of slower runners left in tears

London Marathon bosses have vowed to conduct a thorough investigation after event staff reportedly hurled 'horrific' insults at slower runners and even branded them 'fat'.

Liz Ayres, a back-of-the-pack pace setter, confronted race director Hugh Brasher live on air today about the brutal treatment suffered by contestants who were allegedly yelled at to 'get a f****** move on'.

In a stinging attack, she directly accused Marathon officials of berating the slower runners, many of whom were reduced to tears.

She told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme: 'We had some that were saying, "if you weren't so fat you could run faster". 

'We had, "it's a race not a walk." It was so horrible, it was like "if you didn't eat as much, your t-shirt would fit."

'These were from people wearing the London Marathon blue jackets, officials these were.

'Contractors were swearing at us constantly to f****** move out of the road and to get a f****** move on.'

Liz, whose job was to run at the tail end of the race to set a roughly seven-hour benchmark pace, said that she has been inundated with hundreds of messages from competitors of previous years who experienced the same comments. 

She also hit out at the contractors for beginning the clean-up operation on sections of the course, including vital water stations, which was still being used by the slower runners. 

And her fury was echoed by many on social media who were also dismayed by the alleged lack of care for competitors at the back of the race.

Kate Brittain, who took part in the Marathon, had a similar experience to Liz and tweeted: 'Was aiming for 6.30 but had a bad blister. 

'We couldn’t walk on the pavements because of people and they opened up the roads. 

'An official coach merged into us at one point and nearly squashed us up against the railings!'





MailOnline