Trieste Half Marathon organizers allows African athletes after furor
The organizers of an Italian marathon, who had announced a controversial decision to bar African athletes, will now allow these athletes to register for the upcoming marathon.
On Friday, the race manager of the Trieste Running Festival, which includes competitive and noncompetitive events, announced that the competitive half-marathon would be closed to African athletes, as a symbolic gesture denouncing their exploitation.
“This year we have decided only to hire European athletes until measures are taken to regulate the trade in high-value African athletes, who are simply exploited. This is something we cannot accept anymore,” Mr. Fabio Carini, the race manager, was quoted in an interview with a local paper.
“Kenyan and North African athletes are pawns of unscrupulous, exploitative managers. They are underpaid and treated in an indecent way compared to their real value is. This comes at the expense of Italian and European athletes, who with respect to the cost of living cannot be hired,” added [IT] the manager.
The decision, and its justification, were met with furor across Italy and beyond.
The Italian federation of athletics announced that it had launched an investigation to determine if there were any violations in the decision, while the sports ministry also announced that it would conduct its own inquiry.
Consequent to the global outrage, Mr. Carini issued an apology and announced that the restriction had been lifted.
“I acknowledge that we should have raised the issue differently and with a different timing and that’s what we will do. I regret the reactions to this decision and apologise to those people who have felt offended.”
The Trieste Running Festival will take place between 2nd and 5th May 2019, with the half-marathon taking place on the 5th.
Last year, the first and 2nd positions in both the men’s and women’s category were taken by African athletes.
AFRICA GLOBAL NEWS PRODUCTION
