by Larry Eder
As our sport matures, the challenge of how major events pass on their heritage, culture and management to another generation becomes a challenge. We applaud the process and the example that London Race Director has used to name his successor, named below, and the
process on how they will develop the new Race Director’s position and skills.
We wish new Deputy director Hugh Brasher the very best wishes and congratulate Dave Bedford on his forethought. Bedford will work with Brasher through 2012, with Brasher taking
Race Director title in 2013.
DAVE BEDFORD’S
SUCCESSOR ANNOUNCED
For immediate release: Monday 11th October 2010
Following a decision to appoint
a successor to the current Race Director, Dave Bedford, complete with a structured
changeover, the Virgin London Marathon is delighted to announce HUGH BRASHER as
Deputy Race Director.
Hugh will work closely
with Dave Bedford, beginning January 2011, with the intention that he will act as
joint race director in 2012, and then become sole Race Director in 2013, when Dave
Bedford will begin a part-time role within the London Marathon organisation.
Dave
Bedford said: “There were a number of very strong applications for this role,
however Hugh
Brasher through his business experience in sporting events and understanding of
the sport from every angle, was head and shoulders above the other
applicants. Hugh has been involved
in organising road races for 10 years, and has also been a Director of the
London Marathon since 2008. He is
also part of the advisor group to UK Athletics that set up runbritain “.
Hugh has run the London Marathon four times, the New
York Marathon three times, and already worked on 29 London Marathons, beginning
by selling train tickets to competitors at the first London Marathon !
Hugh has considerable experience in race organisation,
his company organises two of the
largest road races in the country – The Reading Half Marathon, and the Experian
Robin Hood Marathon – now renamed Festival of Running.
Hugh is also CEO of Brasher Leisure Ltd (Sweatshop),
the UK largest specialist running retailer, with 32 shops around the UK. Hugh’s father, Chris Brasher was the
co-founder of the London Marathon.
A member of Ranelagh Harriers, Hugh races motorbikes
in his spare time.
/
tbc
-2-
The 2011 Virgin
London Marathon – The 2011 Virgin London Marathon
will take place on Sunday April 17th 2011 and the official charity
of the 2011 London Marathon will be Oxfam.
www.virginlondonmarathon.com www.virginmoneygiving.com
For more
information please contact ; The
Virgin London Marathon Press Office
Nicola Okey 0207
902 0182 / 07799 661345 / Hannah Finch 0207 902 0199
Notes to editors
The
London Marathon Ltd is the operating subsidiary of the London Marathon
Charitable Trust.
The
London Marathon Charitable Trust
The London Marathon Charitable Trust, a registered
charity number 283813, was created in 1981, the inaugural year of the London
Marathon, to meet one of the six objectives set by Chris Brasher and John
Disley, the race founders: “to raise money for the provision of recreational
facilities in London.”
Since then, the Trust’s objects, which are “to provide
or assist in the provision of facilities for recreation or other leisure time
occupation”, have been widened to enable grants to be made for projects in any
area where the London Marathon Limited stages an event.
The London Marathon Ltd is the operating subsidiary of
the London Marathon Charitable Trust. Every year the surplus from the company
is transferred under Gift Aid to the Trust and the trustees award grants to
further its objectives. In 2009, it allocated grants of more than £5 million
from the record surplus made by the London Marathon Ltd. This brings the total
grants made by the Trust to date to more than £35 million aiding more than 850
projects.
This year 59 projects across 29 London Boroughs have
been allocated grants of between £750 and £250,000. The largest award was made
towards the construction of a new sports hall in Redbridge while £750 paid for
a short mat bowling carpet in Bromley.
Other large grants included: £150,000 to Enfield Council
to help bring the Queen Elizabeth II stadium back into use; £150,000 for new
changing rooms at Abbey Road Rec in Merton; £100,000 to Newham 6th Form College
for a floodlit multi-use games area; and £125,000 to refurbish two children’s
playgrounds in Richmond Park.
Numerous smaller grants were also made, such as £8,000
for new apparatus at Heathrow Gymnastics Club in Hounslow; £13,000 to install
an artificial bowls surface with disabled access in Southwark Park; £9,000 for
an artificial cricket wicket in Bexley; and £65,000 for a climbing wall for
disabled and special needs residents at Mellish estate in Greenwich.
In addition, the Trust has set aside a further £500,000
towards its commitment to community legacy facilities after the London 2012
Olympics. It has also added £1.15 million to its designated fund for the
preservation of playing fields.
Most recently, the Trust has confirmed an award of
£700,000 to Camden Community Football and Sports Association to buy Chase Lodge
playing fields from the London Borough of Camden. The new facilities will
include a new clubhouse, gym and full-sized football pitches. This will bring
to six the number of playing fields saved for sport and recreation by the
London Marathon in the last eight years.
The
Trust has also agreed to contribute £500,000 to the redevelopment of Hackney
Marshes, the ‘home of grassroots football’. Plans for the east London site
include new sports pavilions and changing facilities, upgraded football
pitches, and new rugby, cricket and mini-soccer pitches.
