Marshals vow after Oswestry Half Marathon fears

Clive Knowles of the British Ironwork Centre, which hosted the start and finish of the race, said lessons had been learnt from this weekend’s event.

It comes as pictures had appeared online of cars driving on the Cabin Lane section of the route, with witnesses describing them as “weaving in and out of runners”.

Witnesses said road closure signs were in place but that there were no marshals stopping traffic.

Today Mr Knowles said: “Moving forward we will get more marshals and stewards on board for next year’s event, and ensure they are heavily reinforced to prevent any problems like the ones encountered at the weekend.

“I would ask that people judge us next year once we’ve had this experience behind us, as this was our first time, so teething issues were bound to arise but all in all it was a brilliant day which I’m still feeling energised about today.

“It was so humbling to see so many runners and people who aren’t typically runners take part to raise money for brilliant causes.”

Residents, runners and race marshals took to the Shropshire Star’s Facebook to discuss the issue with vehicles driving through the route. Rachel Louise Nickerson said: “As a marshal who got abused today and a runner, when I did the Wrexham half some of the roads weren’t closed but then I was also struggling to run on pavements with others that had cars parked on them, the reasons I had for breaking the road closure today were varied and pathetic.

“This was a great event apart from a friend who nearly got run over on a road that was supposed to be closed.”

Tracy Bugiel said: “This happens at most running events. Despite all the pre-planning, leaflet drops, and newspaper articles, some people just can’t plan around a road closure.”

Chris Brookes said: “What are cars supposed to do? I live in Cabin Lane and am very pleased to see all the runners but can’t see any way round this issue? Maybe more stewards?”

Meanwhile, Shropshire’s Knife Angel sculpture will be the driving force of next year’s Oswestry Half Marathon.

The race is set to become an annual fixture and Mr Knowles said next year’s medals for runners will be based on the Knife Angel.

The brainchild of Mr Knowles and created at the county’s British Ironwork Centre, the sculpture is made up of thousands of knives, all handed in through police amnesties.

This year’s first Oswestry Half Marathon saw the spoon gorilla, also created at the centre, at the heart of the event, with giant gorillas used as mile-markers, as well as gorilla medals.

But next year’s event will focus on the Knife Angel’s core message of anti-violence and anti-hate.

Mr Knowles said: “This weekend’s event was just amazing. It was absolutely incredible to see all the runners take part to raise money for charity. They were a total inspiration and it was great to see so many people turn out to cheer the runners on. Next year I want to see more of that. I also want to bring as much theatre and drama to the event as possible, Oswestry might not be the capital of Shropshire but it will certainly be the most interesting town that’s for sure.”

Mr Knowles also confirmed Oswestry’s own marathon-hero Amy Hughes would again be ambassador of next year’s race.