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THE ORGANISERS OF the Dublin Marathon have defended the decision to move to a lottery-based system to allocate places for next year’s event, saying it “gives everyone a fair chance”.
Yesterday, it was announced that for the KBC Dublin Marathon 2020 the lotto system would replace the first-come-first-serve basis that currently exists.
Organisers said it came after registration demand for the 2019 marathon – which took place at the weekend – could not be met despite the allocation of an extra 2,500 places.
In all, 22,500 places will be available for next year’s marathon.
The lottery event will open to the public from 1-30 November. Applicants will be charged €15 to enter, but if they are unsuccessful they will be issued with a refund.
In posts announcing the move to a lottery system on social media, the move was criticised as not the best way to tackle the issue of those who registered not turning up on the day.
One said: “A name change system would be the best option and is offered in many other top marathons right up to a few weeks before. A lottery is a farce and disrespectful to the people who have kept this going.”
“Surely people that participate regularly should get a little better chance of getting in,” another said. “Dedicated supporters could be left out in the cold because of it,” according to another.
Responding to criticisms on Facebook, Dublin Marathon said: “We had 1000’s people looking for one of the additional 2,500 spots this year.
The lottery system gives everyone a fair chance and it also allows us to see the demand so that we can take the figures to authorities in the hope of increasing event capacity.
The demand for the 2019 race could not be met despite the addition of 2,500 places.
It said many major city marathons that have more interested runners than they can accommodate have moved to a lottery system in recent years.
“We recognise the loyalty of runners to the event and this will be factored into the lottery systems allocation process,” it said. “This will ensure that the race reflects the make-up of runners lining up of previous years, from national to international, new to loyal runners.”
The 40th edition of the race took place on Sunday, with over 22,500 expected to take part beforehand.
Moroccan Othmane El Goumri won it out with a record course time of 2:08.06. Organisers said El Gourami, who served a two-year doping ban, “slipped through the net”.
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I prefer mars to snickers. The past history of either is not really that important
A combination of factors Val. 4 billion years ago Mars was a much warmer place than today, as the planet had not cooled sufficiently since its formation. The interior of the planet at that time was similar to Earth’s today, i.e. a thin crust floating on a molten interior giving rise to volcanoes such as at Olympus Mons. The interior, as on Earth, is made primarily of iron, and in such instances where the core is molten, this iron creates a magnetic field (such as can be seen on Earth). The magnetic field protects the planet from solar radiation. This radiation breaks H2O molecules down into their respective parts – Oxygen and Hydrogen. With the cooling of the planet’s interior the magnetic field breaks down allowing the solar radiation in which then breaks down the H2O. The hydrogen is too light to remain on Mars’ surface (bear in mind Mars has only1/3 the gravity of Earth) and floats to the top of the atmosphere where, now that the magnetic field is gone, solar winds are allowed to tear the hydrogen away from the planet and carry it into space and ionising other particles which are also stripped away. As the atmosphere thins the planet cools even further. Any water that remains becomes locked in the rocks, any oxygen which remains ends up bound in CO2. The process is a relatively fast one. See this article from NASA on the process.
great comment
Global warming ;)
Deadly bit of news. Little bit disappointed by the artists image though. Surely Mars then wouldn’t have looked the same as now i.e. red and dusty, if it had an ocean would it? Surely it would have looked a little bit closer to our own planet. Raises serious questions about what happened there for an entire ocean to dry up also.
That would really depend on whether or not the ocean was there long enough for life to evolve. Our planet only looks like it does because of the plant life, if you look at the deserts you get an idea of how it would’ve looked if life didn’t happen. The only difference I’d put into the artists impression is a bit of cloud cover, maybe.
The view of the sky from the surface of Mars is blue, like Earth. NASA admitted that they touch those shots “for effect”.
the sky is only blue at sunrise and sunset
How I wish the human race could solve our problems here and explore inner and outer space together. The trillions spent on war could feed and clothe us all and used to expand our understanding of our home. The universe.
It will never happen, but still.
Who cares we should be looking after our own planet
Alan, we may need a new planet. Mars may become important in the same way as the USA was. Who says we must only live on one planet?
The fact that there was once water on Mars is old news. The mainstream news is only catching on now?
Read the first 2 lines of the article please.
It says that in the article, this is not news of water on the planet, it is news of the remnants of a particular ocean.
Ah crap, apologies folks. I read the article but the first couple of lines must have indeed escaped my attention! Whoops.
have your say