‘Trofeos y medallas deportivas, S.L.’, the Spanish trophy and medal engraving company have been announced as the ‘Medal Laser Partner’ of AIMS. The three-year agreement provides for working with AIMS to provide an innovative, personalised service to runners around the world until 2020. Read more

The 22nd World Congress of AIMS will be held in Tallinn on 6-8 September 2018. Read more

Greek National Tourism Organisation (GNTO) fully support the ‘Athens Marathon. The Authentic’, recognising not only its unique value but all the symbolisms that the Marathon captures as well.

Millions of citizens in every corner of the world share the same appreciation of this significance and dream of their opportunity to visit Greece, to experience Greek Light, Greek Sea, Greek Gems, Greek Gastronomy and Greek Culture.
 
GNTO showcases athletic tourism in Greece. Find out more at:
http://visitgreece.gr/en/activities

A Regional Conference will be held in Cape Town from 14-16 September at the Southern Sun Newlands Hotel prior to the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon on 17 September. The subject to be addressed is “Developing Distance Races in Africa: an international perspective.

This will include such themes as:

• sports tourism, community and charity involvement, sustainability
• Creating and managing an international tour partner programme
• Learnings from African races
• International standards: road closures, timing systems, safety & security, elite fields, medical, doping control

For further information contact: aims@capetownmarathon.com or visit the event website.

The International Institute for Race Medicine (IIRM) is the medical advisory body to AIMS and two of its Board members, Chris Troyanos and George Chiampas, are directly available to AIMS as advisors.
 
IIRM will hold a conference on 15 September at the Southern Sun Newlands Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa. The focus will be on excellence and prevention in medical care at mass-community based sports events. The conference is hosted by Mediclinic Southern Africa and the Sports, Exercise Medicine and Lifestyle Institute (SEMLI) at the University of Pretoria.

See: http://www.racemedicine.org/en-us/Articles-News

A further medical conference will be held in conjunction with the Marine Corps Marathon on 20-22 October at the W. Proctor Harvey Clinical Teaching Amphitheater of Georgetown University School of Medicine, Medical and Dental Building, 3900 Reservoir Road NW, Washington DC.

See: http://www.racemedicine.org/en-us/Medical-Meetings

IIRM offers membership to AIMS member races at an introductory rate of $100 for one year. For a limited time members can apply for a grant to cover the one-year membership. Up to 100 eligible events will be awarded such grants provided by the UK-based Matthew Good Foundation (MGF).
 

The second AIMS Children’s Series race of 2017 was held on 27 July in the city of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, approximately 350km north of Baghdad. Read more

For the first time in history the top three marathon runners in the world will be on the start line as the Kenyan duo of Eliud Kipchoge and Wilson Kipsang take on Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele in the BMW Berlin Marathon on September 24. Read more
Photo: SCC EVENTS/Jiro Mochizuki

The 5th AIMS Best Marathon Runner Award Gala will take place during the evening of Friday 10 November. The best male and female Marathon runners of 2017 will be declared and the AIMS Green Award, the AIMS Social Award and the AIMS Lifetime Achievement award will be presented to AIMS members races and individual personalities for exceptional work in their respective fields.
 
Candidates for the BMR Awards will be announced following the BMW Berlin Marathon on 24 September after which the voting process among AIMS member races will start.

The 11th AIMS Symposium will take place on Saturday 11 November focusing on ‘Developing your race through the running market in your country’. Four speakers will address this subject in two sessions relating to three different examples: “RunCzech” in the Czech Republic; “Valencia – Ciudad del Ruinning” in Spain and “RunGreece”.
 
The Symposium will be followed by the Athens Marathon Opening Ceremonies & Marathon Flame Lighting.
 
The Hellenic Athletics Federation, the Athens Authentic Marathon and the Region of Attica are co-organisers of these events which are sponsored by the Greek National Tourism Organisation and Athens International Airport.
 

The US company Road Race Management maintains a listing of current and past road running and track and field athletes convicted of dope testing offences at: http://www.dopingsanctions.com/

Groups of athletes can be checked with a single search by copying and pasting the entire elite athlete list into the search box.

Those Russian athletes suspended under the IAAF ban are listed on www.dopingsanctions.com
 
AIMS members should not negotiate the entry or participation of any Russian athletes or support personnel (agents, coaches, etc.) in their races but: “In principle, ordinary fun runners with absolutely no ties to the Russian Federation are eligible to participate.” It is best to explicitly identify the participation of any ‘eligible’ Russian runners in advance of the race being held to avoid any misunderstanding with media outlets.
 

Changes to the dates of member races are posted on the AIMS website as soon as notified. Those currently listed are:

• The Marathon Vert D’Agadir (MAR) will take place on Sun 15 April 2018, not Sun 22 April 2018 as previously published.
• The 20km & 10km International de Marrakech (MAR) will take place on Sun 1 October 2017, not Mon 16 October 2017 as previously published.
• The AUDIREVI Lake Maggiore Half Marathon & 10km (ITA) will take place on Sun 4 March 2018, not Sun 11 March 2018 as previously published.
• The UNICEF Charity Run Half Marathon & 10km (HKG) will take place on Sun 26 November 2017, not Mon 27 November 2017 as previously published.
• The Madagascar Marathon & Half-Marathon (MAD) will take place on Sat 9 June 2018, not Sun 17 June 2018 as previously published.
• The Vadodara International Marathon (IND) will take place on Sun 7 January 2018, not Sun 4 February 2018 as previously published
• The Great Hakka Marathon (CHN) will take place on Sat 25 November 2017, not Sat 18 November 2017 as previously published.
• The Econet Victoria Falls Marathon (ZIM) will take place on Sun 1 July 2018, not Sun 17 June 2018 as previously published.
• The Tata Consultancy Services World 10K Bengaluru (IND) will take place on Sun 13 May 2018, not Sun 20 May 2018 as previously published.
• The Buenos Aires International Marathon (ARG) will take place on Sun 15 October 2017, not Sun 8 October 2017 as previously published.
• The Maratona di Torino (ITA) will take place on Sun 29 October 2017, not Sun 1 October 2017 as previously published.
• The Mizuno Hong Kong Half-Marathon Championships (HKG) will take place on Sun 10 December 2017, not Sun 17 December 2017 as previously published.
• The Gammon China Coast Marathon and Half Marathon (HKG) will take place on Sun 28 January 2018, not Sun 21 January 2018 as previously published.
• The SOPAL SFAX Marathon International Olive Trees (TUN) will take place on Sun 10 December 2017, not Sun 17 December 2017 as previously published.
• The Maratón de las Flores Medellín (COL) will take place on Sun 17 September 2017, not Sun 10 September 2017 as previously published.
• The Raiffeisen Bank Bucharest Marathon (ROU) will take place on Sat 14 October 2017, not Sat 7 October 2017 as previously published.
• The Bengaluru Midnight Marathon (IND) will take place on Sat 16 December 2017, not Sat 9 December 2017 as previously published.
• The Niagara Falls International Marathon (CAN) will take place on Sun 15 October 2017, not Sun 22 October 2017 as previously published.

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Gary Friar circulates member races with regular requests for information including
i) race dates
ii) contact details,
iii) advertising requests
iv) addresses at which to receive bulk deliveries of Distance Running.
& etc.
It is possible that these requests may be diverted into the member race organiser’s spam folder. Please be alert to this possibility and, if you are not receiving Gary’s messages, be pro-active in providing details and  making bookings for advertisements in Distance Running.