Following the approval of the Protocol for Road Races submitted by the Hellenic Athletics Federation to the Health Committee of the General Secretariat of Sports for Sports and the Ministry of Sports, SEGAS (Hellenic Athletics Federation) and the City of Athens, organizers of the Athens Half Marathon event, announced today the decisions taken regarding the staging of the 2020 Athens Half Marathon.

This approved Protocol is the core document on which SEGAS and the City of Athens have based their final decisions for the staging of the 2020 Athens Half Marathon event on 20 September 2020, after its late postponement in March, in close cooperation with Attica Region authorities.

On that ground, it is said that:

• The Athens Half Marathon event’s program will include the Half Marathon Race and a 5km Race.
• The 3km Race and the 1000m Kids Run, originally scheduled, will not take place this year.

The Half Marathon Race will be held with the participation only of those that had already registered before 09 March, when the event was postponed. The number of participating runners will be up to 5,000.

• In the terms of the safety guidelines and instructions of the relevant Public Health authorities, the Half Marathon Race will start at 07.30am.
• The runners will be separated into 10 different blocs, in such a way that the physical and social distancing of 1.5m is kept in all cases. In order to facilitate the runners as they walk towards the start line, the runners will be asked to take their places on specific standing signage on the road. By that way, lines of 9 runners each will be created and each line will start the race with a time difference to the line preceding. This time difference will allow runners of the preceding line to have already run a distance of about 6m to 8m. Furthermore, time gaps will be applied not only between lines but between blocks of 500 runners as well.
• Race Results and Ranking will be announced based the runners’ net time.
• The Marathon Race National Championships will be held as all previous years.

The 5km Race will also be held with the participation only of those that had already registered before 09 March, when the event was postponed. In order for this to happen, the overall 5km Race will be split into two different smaller 5km Races. 5km Race A will be held with the participation of 4,000 runners and another 4,000 will run the 5km Race B. Allotment of registered runners in the appropriate block and Race (A or B) will be decided by the Organizing Committee under the criteria used all previous years as to blocking.

• 5km Race A will start at 11.15am, while 5km Race B will start 75 minutes late;, that is at 12.30pm.
• The placement of runners in blocks and at the start line will follow the example of the Half Marathon Race. In all cases, the specifications regarding physical and social distancing as well as time gaps at the start will be followed. More specifically, the 5km Races (A & B) runners will be placed in lines of 8 runners each.

Last but not least, the 3km Race will not be held as mentioned above. Those who had registered for these two races will soon receive detailed information on available options.

Detailed information regarding bib numbers pick-up and the HALF MARATHON EXPO to be staged in the SERAFIO SPORTS & EXHIBITION CENTRE from 16 to 19 September 2020, will be sent to runners at a later stage as we move forward to the Race Day. Furthermore, all runners will soon receive instructions on how to get to the Start Area, how and where they may leave their clothing bags, how to proceed after finish. By all means, our main concern is and will always be to achieve the best outcome for anyone participating in the event.

The key effort of SEGAS and the City of Athens is to maintain alive the opportunity for everyone to participate in running events with safety. This is a huge task and it requires cooperation and high sense of responsibility on behalf of everyone involved. We do believe that the 2020 Athens Half Marathon will boost the city’s spirit, in the framework of how well Greece has coped with the world pandemic health crisis so far. The 2020 Athens Half Marathon will be one (if not the first) of major races to be actually held in Europe after Covid-19 entered our lives.