Charles Casha, Żabbar
First-ever Malta Marathon held in 1969
Charles Cioffi (The Sunday Times, September 25) claims he founded the Malta Marathon. This is not correct.
Mr Cioffi might not be aware that the first-ever Malta Marathon was the brainchild of David Brown, a member of the Voluntary Service Corps (Malta).
This event, which was in the form of a sponsored walk from Cirkewwa to Delimara, was organised by the VSC to raise funds for its voluntary work in Malta and abroad.
The first Malta Marathon was held on March 23, 1969, under the patronage of the Governor-General, Sir Maurice Dorman. The main sponsors were Carreras Cigarettes (Malta).
Documents and photos recorded this event, and I am sure there are many who still remember or took part in the marathon.
David Brown, Leo Bowman and I formed the sub-committee which organised this event.
As chairman of the VSC (Malta), with the help of a sub-committee, I organised the second Malta Mar-athon, which was held in April 1970.
These events were no longer held after the Corps was later disbanded; its funds were donated to social projects.
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Mr Peter Murray
Oct 2nd 2011, 12:44
Marathon's completed by solely walking as opposed marathon's undertaken by actual running are two entirely different concepts and considerations.However,let's not get bogged down by such discussions on ground-breaking concerns as who or what came first ,as the principal and over-riding rationale for their initiation was for charitable purposes and that alone should be the key factor and sense of purpose.
Joe Micallef
Oct 2nd 2011, 11:03
I would like point out that a marathon as has been organised by the Malta Marathon Organising Committee for the past 26 years must be exactly 42.195 km long (+ up to 42m) as defined in rules of the International Athletic Amateur Federation.
This distance was established in the 1908 London Olympics and ratified by the IAAF in May 1921. The distance is one of a number of rules that have to be observed for an event to be classified as a marathon.
Therefore the sponsored walk cannot be classified as the first Malta Marathon since a number of these rules were not observed, thus making Charles Cioffi’s claim correct unless there was another event which observed these rules and of which we are not aware.
Joe Micallef
Malta Marathon Race Director