Twenty-four thousand people "have not completed the Greater Manchester Marathon after the course was found to be 380m too short for the past three years, with all runners between the 2013 and 2015 events having their times invalidated."
UK Athletics announced that it will not recognize the times "over the three year period due to the measuring mistake."
A full marathon course should be 26 miles and 385 yards, but the route in Manchester "was found to be 380m shy of the mark, leading to officials declaring all times were invalid and blamed an incorrect calibration of the bicycle wheel that is used to measure out the course by an accredited measurer" (London INDEPENDENT, 4/22).
Ooredoo and Paris St. Germain are conducting the third annual "Paris Saint-Germain Academy" coaching program. Over the past six months, sessions "have taken place with Ooredoo Kuwait, Ooredoo Qatar, Ooredoo Tunisia, Ooredoo Oman, and most recently with Ooredoo Indosat in Indonesia." Another academy "will take place in the Maldives shortly" (GULF TIMES, 4/25).
Paraguay will play host to a stage of the Dakar Rally for the first time next year "when the 2017 edition of the South American event kicks off in the capital city of Asuncion."
Dakar organizers "announced the route for next year's race," taking competitors from Asuncion to La Paz, the capital of neighboring Bolivia, before heading south into Argentina toward the finish at Buenos Aires.
Paraguay "therefore becomes the 29th different nation to have hosted part of the Dakar, which first moved to South America for the 2009 event" (MOTORSPORT.COM, 4/26).
Int'l Paralympic Committee Powerlifting announced that Kitakyushu, Japan, will host the 2018 IPC Powerlifting Asian Open Championships, just two years before the country stages the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
Around 230 athletes from 35 countries are expected for the competition from Sept. 8-12, 2018, which will bring a major Para powerlifting Championships to Japan for the first time.
The venue for the Championships will be the Kitakyushu Performing Arts Centre (IPC).