Airtel Delhi Half-Marathon 2010: An absolute disgrace!

Procam and Airtel should be ashamed of themselves for the worst possible organisation of the Delhi Half Marathon. The marathon came in the news because some model was groped but what was more disgraceful was the way the athletes were treated. Let me recount the shameful events one by one:

1) The organisers promised a shuttle bus service from the Central Secretariat metro station to the venue and back. The bus driver didn't know the route to the venue and lost his way making all of us in the bus late. To make matters worse there were no services to the station after the run!

2) The crowd management was so poor that many of us didn't even enter the holding area before the 7:30 am scheduled start of the race.

3) The organisers said they ran out of medals that were supposed to be given to those that finished the run. Apparently there were enough medals to be given to the VIPs who were in attendance! How shameful of the organisers and the VIPs to behave like this!

4) They gave no refreshments to those who ran the 21k. They were allegedly out of snacks and water as well.

The organisers even threatened to have police lathi-charge athletes who demanded their medals! I have never seen such disgraceful behaviour towards athletes in my life. Shame on Procam and Airtel! Only such poor organisation can spoil an event where people run on the best 21 kilometres in all of India.

I dread the thought that Procam is also organising the Mumbai Marathon. I hope they treat the athletes better than they did in Delhi yesterday.

Yes I ran a great race and finished 20 minutes quicker than I did last year but the behaviour of the organisers really spoiled the fun.