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A video of civilians “stealing” water reserved for runners in the London Marathon 2016 has raised the ire of many online, with people filmed stuffing crates of water bottles into shopping bags and trolleys during the event.
The video, which was shared on Facebook and YouTube yesterday, has seen many vilify those allegedly “stealing” the water, despite a representative of Buxton – the company that supplies the marathon with its bottled water – overlooking the controversial scenes. It has been suggested that considering the vast majority of runners in the marathon had already passed the south east London water station by this point, Buxton would have likely requested that bystanders take the remaining water for free. This is something that the marathon’s water suppliers reportedly do each year, considering the level of expense it would cost to transport the excess bottles of water back to Buxton’s factories.
However, the video shows marathon participants continuing to walk past the water stands, leading to an angry response from London Marathon Events Ltd’s Event Director Hugh Brasher, who said: “It’s very disappointing to see water being stolen in this way from the official water stations for our runners. These water stations are staffed by volunteers and we are very grateful to them for their work on Race Day.
“We always brief our volunteers not to get into altercations if this kind of thing happens. We’ll investigate this further.”
Watch the footage below:
