London Marathon in talks to help save cash-strapped UK Athletics

The London Marathon is in talks to help save UK Athletics amid reports that the governing body could go bust this year, with the event director Hugh Brasher stressing: “We have a responsibility to the sport.”

Other potential funders, including organisers of the Great North Run, are also thought to be open to assisting UKA, which lost £1.8m last year. Its remaining reserves of £400,000 have since fallen further. Last month the governing body was forced to make 10 employees redundant as a result of its financial crisis, while dealing with safeguarding cases has cost it another six-figure sum.

“This is an amazing sport,” Brasher said. “We had 8,000 kids on Saturday at the Mini Marathon. We have a responsibility to the sport and absolutely we are talking to UK Athletics about how we can help.”

The London Marathon already funds training camps for British athletes in Kenya, South Africa and Font Romeu, as well as numerous other projects. However Brasher was non‑committal when asked whether the scale of support might include taking over the Diamond League at the London Stadium in July, which is in danger of costing UKA as much as £500,000 despite the sale of 35,000 tickets. “I’m not going to go into what it might be or what it might not be,” he said. “It is a very early stage of conversations. This isn’t just us. There are other ones looking at it.”

Another source of potential assistance is UK Sport’s major events panel, who are in discussion with UKA about helping to plug the Diamond League shortfall. However reports that UK Sport might offer an emergency bailout for UKA are described as wide of the mark, with informed sources saying the money simply does not exist three years into a four-year Olympic cycle.

Brasher,