Update 29/9, 15:12 | Campus run cancelled
The UT decided that the Campus Run cannot go on tomorrow, says the organisation. The decision has to do with the tighter national corona measures announced yesterday evening. In the next few days, the organisation will consider whether and how to proceed with the Campus Run.
A long time ago since there was a big sports event on campus. The race has to - and can - go on?
‘Yes, normally the Campusloop takes place in April, but of course it couldn't take place back then. We set 30 September as the date, we would see how it would go. In any case, we wanted it to go on, because we put a lot of work into it. In consultation with the UT events bureau and with the permission of the municipality, we can now organise a coronaproof race.’
What do participants have to consider?
‘The start in particular is different. Instead of the usual mass start, it's now best to compare it to a time trial in cycling. Every ten seconds a participant starts and everyone's time is recorded neatly via a chip on your shoe.
In addition to the usual corona rules and measures on the scene, such as keeping a distance of one and a half metres and disinfecting your hands, we also want participants to register on time. We now have 148 registrations and expect to reach a nice number of 200 participants. In recent years, there have been a lot of post-registrations just before the start; that is not possible now. As an organisation, we must be able to regulate things. That's why, for example, there is no award ceremony afterwards, participants can see their times online and winners can come by to collect their prizes later.'
Don't all these measures spoil the fun?
‘We are especially happy that we can still organise the event. After all, the UT is fairly strict in the rules. And I can also imagine that after such a long time people are eager to put their running shoes back on for a contest. Perhaps such a time trial start only works to the advantage of the runners. You have the person running in front of you to focus on and you're not crowding in at the start of the race.
In addition, we have made some changes to the course. Before, the distances were two or four English miles. Now we have turned them into three and five kilometres, giving the participants of the five kilometres race the most complete campus experience possible. Hopefully that's a nice extra, especially for the people who have had to miss the campus so much over the last couple of months.’
