Extinction Rebellion offers ‘to guard London Marathon’ against any Just Stop Oil protests
Extinction Rebellion will take the unprecedented step of asking an expected 30,000 campaigners in London this weekend “to help guard” the London Marathon against feared disruption, race organisers have disclosed.
Hugh Brasher, the event director, cycled across London on Wednesday morning for face-to-face talks with Extinction Rebellion chiefs and will now seek similar assurances from Just Stop Oil after it halted play at the World Snooker Championship on Monday and promised to disrupt further major sporting events.
“I have just come from a meeting with Extinction Rebellion,” Brasher said. “They will be uniquely asking all their participants to help guard the London Marathon – to do something that is quite unique in their history – to protect what is one of the crown jewels of British sport.
“It is one of the crown jewels of British sport because it is about the fact the everyday person is competing – in their own competition – for their reason to run. The environment is enormously important. It is part of our DNA.
“We run for clean air. Air is what we breathe, what runners will be ingesting and is hugely important to all of us. We have not traded anything off. All we are doing is having conversations and asking if we can work together and so far everyone has been incredibly positive.
“The London Marathon is unique. We are reaching out to all parties because we run together for charity, we run together to celebrate humanity, we run together for our communities and we run together in peace. We really hope for a great weekend where the true goodness of humanity shines through.”
Brasher’s father Chris co-founded the London Marathon and, as well as famously pacing Roger Bannister to the first four-minute mile, used to write a monthly newspaper column about conservation.
Around 45,000 people are due to run the London Marathon on Sunday and are expected to raise more than £60 million for good causes, including environmental charities.
The backdrop to the event, however, is the extraordinary disruption that was caused by two Just Stop Oil protesters at snooker’s Crucible Theatre on Monday evening when orange paint powder was poured over a table and play was suspended.
Just Stop Oil then raised fears for both the London Marathon and FA Cup this weekend, as well as major forthcoming events such as Wimbledon, the Open Championship golf and Formula One’s British Grand Prix.
