Following the death of a female runner just yards from the finish of Sunday's London Marathon, leading horses have called for changes to be made to the course.
The incident was the tenth fatality at the event since it's inception and the horse community has been quick to condemn the authorities for allowing the event to continue in it's current form. 1992 Grand National winner Party Politics told us that "the course is just too long. We've been saying it for years that it's unreasonable to expect people to run that far. Fatigue simply has to be a factor." The sheer number of participants - around 37,500 people contested this year's event - was brought up by Clan Royal, who finished third in the National behind Numbersixvalverde in 2006. "It's that crowded out there that you can easily get involved in someone else's incident. A reduction in numbers is paramount".
2011 runner-up Oscar Time highlighted the vast differences in ability in the field, saying "it's crazy that you've got some people going out and running it in little more than two hours when some traipse in over three times that. There has to be some sort of vetting procedure to ensure competitors are up to it."
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