Posted at 5:00 a.m.
(Montreal) Following the delays and the death of Patrick Neely, a young 24-year-old runner in 2019, the event is getting a facelift, leaving behind its former organizers and partners.
New edition, new course. This year, the marathon will cross the island of Montreal in its center, from south to north, taking its most emblematic axes such as Saint-Laurent Boulevard and Saint-Denis Street. The race will start at Espace 67 on Île Sainte-Hélène and finish at the Olympic Stadium. A new route that excites new and old participants. “The course is much nicer than in 2019,” said Ludovic Dessemon, 49-year-old runner.
On Friday, the number of registered participants amounted to more than 14,000 runners, including 2,500 for the marathon and 3,000 for the 10 kilometer. A new team is already active to prevent possible unforeseen events. The last edition of the marathon had indeed been marked by significant delays and by the death of Patrick Neely, 24. “The death proved that this kind of event can happen and that you have to prepare for it”, explains Sébastien Arsenault, appointed promoter of the race following the call for tenders launched by the town hall of Montreal in 2020.
After a detour by the American promoter Rock’n’Roll, the Montreal Marathon returned, two years ago, to the hands of the Arsenault family at the origin of its creation in 1979. Then came the COVID-19. “At times, this break was an advantage, to adjust the shot, at other times we found that it was stretching, for the staff in particular”, testifies Sébastien Arsenault.
A revamped event
Among the challenges of the new Marathon, access to medical care seems to have been placed at the center of the investments and communication of the event. Eddy Afram, coordinator of emergency measures and medical services, talks about these initiatives: “We have increased the number of hospital resources. We looked for all the flaws there might be in our information system and we corrected them. Urgences-santé supports this initiative: “We are in constant communication so that the population can run in complete safety”, explains its spokesperson Stéphane Smith.
Another issue is traffic. To cope with the influx of runners, the streets of the city center will be consecutively closed on Sunday between 6:45 a.m. and 2:15 p.m. A map of the closing times has already been published by the organizers of the event. .