2007 AIMS Marathon Symposium Delegates in Marathon (© Francis Kay/Marathon-Photo.com)
The birthplace of the classical race, the village of Marathon in Greek, was the venue for the first Marathon Symposium of the Association of International Marathons and Road Races (AIMS). Held on the day before the Athens Classic Marathon the topic was ,Marathon: Past – Present – Future’. AIMS cooperated with the IAAF, the Athens Marathon, the Greek athletics federation SEGAS and the city of Marathon to stage this symposium, which is planned to take place annually from now on.
The day in Marathon started with an impressive ceremony at the Marathon Tomb. Two Greek ministers were among the speakers. “It is the aim of the marathon to bring together people from all over the world to a festival of sport and fair play,” said Michalis Liapis, Greek cultural minister. Concerning the Athens Classic Marathon Liapis believes that its future will be a bright one: “I believe that we have reached a turning point in the history of the race now,” said Liapis while Aris Spiliotopoulos, the Minister of Tourism in Greece, stated: “A marathon symbolizes a peaceful gathering of people from all countries.”
Referring to Marathon and Athens Pierre Weiss, the IAAF’s General Secretary, explained that there could not have been a better venue for the Symposium, especially in connection with the marathon on Sunday. “This is the birthplace of sport and of the Olympic Games. So the IAAF happily took the patronage for the AIMS Symposium. Without the work of AIMS in the past 25 years the marathon would not be what it is today,” said Pierre Weiss, who announced that the IAAF will further support the sport of road running in future: “May be we have missed this train in the past, but now we are catching up.”
Pierre Weiss and Sean Wallace-Jones, the Coordinator of the IAAF’s Road Running Committee, explained to the delegates of road races from all over the world the introduction of IAAF Labels for Road Races. “There will be Gold and Silver Labels to recognize and reward the world’s leading road races. The standards we set are high ones,” said Sean Wallace-Jones. Additionally the global federation will start a weekly TV magazine called ‘The Running Road Show’ to give the sport more vital television coverage.
At the AIMS Marathon Symposium Yannis Theodorakopoulos, Greek TV Sports Journalist and Mayor of Pefki, as well as the former international runner Maria Polizou, who still holds the Greek marathon record, recalled the historic roots of the marathon.
Then Hugh Jones, former world class marathon runner and today’s General Secretary of AIMS, spoke about the tremendous development of marathon running in the past 30 years. “In 1978 I ran my first marathon at Land’s End in Britain. The finish happened to be 42 kilometres down the main road and we had to run with ongoing traffic. Three years later I ran at the English Championships on country lanes. And the only spectators we had were cows! In the same year the first London Marathon took place and I had the idea of going to Tower Bridge to watch the runners. I thought it would be a good spot, but when I arrived there the bridge was full of people. That was when I got an impression of the coming dimensions of marathon running,” explained Hugh Jones.
Jones also referred to the enormous recent development in Asia. The Hong Kong Marathon had 40,000 entries while races in Beijing, Xiamen and Mumbai all had more than 20,000.
A main topic of the symposium was the economic impact big road races have today. “Analysing a marathon race in terms of economy one has to come to the conclusion that these races are highly attractive,” said Wolfgang Maennig, who is a professor in economy science at the University of Hamburg and has done relevant surveys in this field. Concerning the question about the biggest sports event in the world one can give different answers. Wolfgang Maennig, an Olympic rowing champion in 1988, explained: “Concerning the number of ticket sales the Olympics are the biggest event. Looking at it from the side of TV the Olympics or the Soccer World Cup would be number one. But I prefer to see it from the athletes’ side. If you count the number of athletes involved in an event then the road races are the biggest sports events in the world.”
“Already back in 1998 in Berlin we found out that the economic impact of the race for the city was 25 million Euros. Today’s figures are much higher. Boston in 2003 is said to have had an impact of 74 million US-Dollar while the figure for this Sunday’s New York City Marathon is even 220,” said Wolfgang Maennig, who said that it would neither be helpful nor necessary to have a competition regarding on who gets the highest figures. “It is simply not necessary because surveys show that people do believe that a running event has positive effects on the city.”
“The marathon is the only event that was developed from a legend,” said Paco Borao, the Race Director of the Valencia Marathon, who is the Vice-President of AIMS. Regarding the development of AIMS he said: “When we started in 1982 we had 28 member races, today we have close to 250.”
Horst Milde, the man who developed the Berlin Marathon and who was in charge as Chairman of the AIMS Symposium in Marathon, stated: “An important aspect for our future development is to motivate young people to start running. Races must think about this and include children’s competitions.”
Timothy Kilduff from the Boston Marathon stressed that race organisers should also think about “media coverage, especially TV, the internet and Charity Running. But whatever you do, you always have to be respectful to the runners”.
“Today marathon is so significant, it is a way of life,” said the Mayor of Marathon, Spiros Zagaris, who had been very eager and supportive to stage this symposium and also had been the key figure behind the opening of a new marathon museum in his town.
The delegation had lunch in this museum. Among those invited for the marathon weekend were former World Champions Abel Anton (Spain/1997 in Athens and 1999 in Seville) and Rosa Mota (Portugal/1987 in Rome), who also became the Olympic Champion in 1988.
“Marathon has given me a lot in my life. And I will never forget winning my first gold medal at World Championships, because it was in 1997, when I took the race from Marathon to Athens,” said Abel Anton, who took the opportunity to run a 10k race on Sunday. This was staged parallel to the Athens Classic Marathon. In between fun runners Abel Anton crossed the finish line in the famous Panathinaikon Stadium, where he had triumphed ten years ago.
AIMS
