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Beirut Marathon Postponed After Minister Murdered

by Dave Martin of the (UK) Press Association

Organizers of this Sunday's Beirut International Marathon have postponed the event following the assassination of a prominent minister.

Pierre Gemayel was shot to death by a gunman in a suburb of Beirut this afternoon becoming the fifth anti-Syrian member of the ruling government to die in the last two years.

"We are just postponing not canceling the marathon," Zeina Dacache a marathon spokesman told the Press Association this evening, asking them to cancel travel arrangements for their athletics correspondent.

"He was a good leader and it would be wrong for us to be seen celebrating our event but we plan going ahead with it at a future date."

The BLOM Bank Beirut Marathon announced in September despite the military troubles following the July war with Israel, they would stage the event.

With a a naval blockade still in place, and residual skirmishes on the Lebanon-Israel frontier still taking place their was admiration for the resilience and enterprise they were showing.

The government fully supporting the venture announced it would fix damaged roads in on the route particularly in the south of the city.

But the race was quickly postponed after the terrorist killing took place today.

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