Paris Marathon canceled after coronavirus hits travel plans

PARIS (AP) — The Paris Marathon has been canceled because of the coronavirus after repeated attempts to find a new date, organizers said Wednesday.

The race was originally due to take place in April but was then moved to October. Organizers said they’d recently tried to rearrange the race for November but continuing travel restrictions made that unrealistic.

“Faced with the difficulty that many runners, especially those coming from abroad, had in making themselves available for the 14th / 15th November, it was decided that it would be better and simpler for those concerned if we organized the Schneider Electric Marathon de Paris in 2021,” organizers said in a statement.

They will now focus on the 2021 edition of the race. Runners who were registered for this year’s race will be automatically signed up for next year.

The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on the international marathon calendar, given the large numbers of runners typically involved and the difficulty of maintaining any social distancing. Some races like Berlin have been canceled outright and others like London have been restricted to elite runners only.