The Tata Sky Marathon in Poland was this Saturday, August 17, 2024, over before it even started. With the women’s race 11 kilometres underway and the men’s race not started yet, the organisation found itself forced to cancel the race, when light rain turned into unexpected, heavy thunderstorms.

The cancellation also forced the organisation of the Golden Trail World Series, of which the Tata Sky Marathon is part, to adjust the regulations. To reach the final, an athlete must have run at least four races. Now that the Tata Sky Marathon has been cancelled, this is no longer possible for athletes who only wanted to run the last four races of the Golden Trail Series. Therefore the Golden Trail World Series has decided that only three results are needed this season. “We’re faced with an unprecedented situation,” explained Grégory Vollet, director of the Golden Trail Series. “The decision taken by the Tatra Sky Marathon race management was without doubt the right decision, but unfortunately it has consequences for our rankings. That’s why we have decided to only keep the runners’ three best results before the final. This will enable each runner to have the right number of races despite this unexpected cancellation.”

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No improvement

Rain was expected at the Tata Sky Marathon in Poland, but the thunderstorms were not forecasted. Because of the rain the women’s race started an hour earlier than planned. When the rain turned into thunderstorms the organisation decided to stop the race. As the weather forecast gave no indication of improvement in the hours to follow the race got cancelled.

Photo: Colin Olivero

Here you will find the general classification of the Golden Trail World Series