The much-awaited New York City marathon was finally cancelled Friday by Mayor Michael Bloomberg due to a strong public outcry against the city officials' decision to go ahead with the marathon while the city was still reeling from the aftermath of superstorm Sandy.
Mayor Bloomberg had been insisting that the world's biggest running event should go on as scheduled until Friday; however, gave himself into the growing public opinion to give the priority to emergency storm efforts.
"We would not want a cloud to hang over the race or its participants, and so we have decided to cancel it," Bloomberg said. "We cannot allow a controversy over an athletic event - even one as meaningful as this - to distract attention away from all the critically important work that is being done to recover from the storm and get our city back on track."
The multi-billion mayor came under severe criticism for his eleventh-hour cancellation of the event, from many athletes who have travelled from different parts of the world to attend the marathon.
While a majority of them agreed that it's the right decision to take, they were angry over the fact that the mayor took it so long to call off the event.
Many frustrated runners were seen crying after the cancelation news broke out as all their training and money spent over a year have gone waste.
At a time when the storm claimed 41 lives in the city alone and thousands were still without electricity, New York residents could not comprehend the idea of deploying large number of police force on the marathon duty or evicting the affected people from hotels to make way for runners.
"That controversy grew and division grew over the course of the week," Howard Wolfson, NYC deputy mayor for government affairs and communications, said at a press conference about the cancellation of the marathon. "Those of us who love the city and those of us who love the race realized it wasn't the marathon if it wasn't a unifying event," he said.
This is the first time the marathon has been cancelled in the event's history. President of New York Road Runners (NYRR) which organizes the marathon, Mary Wittenberg, said the decision was finally made to cancel the event after considering all other options like a modified race or postponing the event.
She said the all supplies including generators, food and water required for the marathon will be offered to people who need it.
