New York City Marathon cancelled due to Covid-19

The New York City Marathon originally scheduled to be held on Nov. 1 has been cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic, race organisers said.

The New York Road Runners (NYRR), in partnership with the mayor's office, said the decision to cancel the world's largest marathon was made due to novel coronavirus-related health and safety concerns for runners, spectators, volunteers and staff.

"Cancelling this year's TCS New York City Marathon is incredibly disappointing for everyone involved, but it was clearly the course we needed to follow from a health and safety perspective," NYRR Chief Executive Michael Capiraso said in a statement.

The 26.2-mile race (42km), which traverses all five boroughs of the city and had 53,640 finishers in 2019, is the second of the six World Marathon Majors to be cancelled this year due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The Boston Marathon, originally due to be held in April and then postponed until September, was cancelled for the first time in its history.

The Tokyo Marathon went ahead on March 1 with elite runners only, London was postponed to Oct. 4 from April 26 and Berlin organisers said their race will not got ahead in September but did not say if it would be postponed or cancelled altogether.

The Chicago Marathon has not announced any changes to their scheduled event in October.