Great North Run medal: Organisers left red-faced as memorabilia features rival city Sunderland instead of Newcastle
Organisers of one of Britain’s biggest running events have been left red-faced - after putting the wrong city on the finishers’ medals.
The Great North Run took place yesterday and saw more than 60,000 people take on the half-marathon 13.1-mile route from Newcastle to South Shields, which also attracted about 200,000 spectators and supporters.
But rather than putting their best foot forward, the organisers have slightly put their foot in it - by mistakenly featuring a map of nearby Sunderland on the medals and T-shirts.
This morning the Great Run group admitted the blooper of adding the rival city to the medals - and said it wasn’t a sneaky way of revealing they were moving the route next year.
They said in a statement: “Wear sorry! As the eagle-eyed have already spotted, the shape of the river on this year’s finisher T-shirt & medal is indeed the River Wear.
“To answer the rumours that this was the route reveal for next year…. sorry to disappoint, it’s a mistake. Lots of people looked very closely at the designs and none of us picked it also attracted up.”
The statement continued: “We had Newcastle United stars on the start line and the Stadium of Light on the medal. The Great North Run is truly a celebration of the region, even more so than we had planned. For the 60,000 who ran yesterday, you’ve got the most unique T-shirt & medal in Great North Run history, a keepsake that we’ll be talking about in 44 years’ time.”
Founder and president of the Great North Run Sir Brendan Foster said: “I loved the designs for the medal and T-shirt, spent ages marvelling at them, and never spotted the mistake, even when we hung it in Fenwick’s window. I’ve lived on the River Tyne my whole life and I should’ve noticed, but if I’d run the Great North Run yesterday, I’d still be wearing my medal with pride.
“Thanks to everyone who took part in an amazing event yesterday, and all the supporters who came out to cheer on the runners. It was a fantastic Great North Run, and we’re already looking forward to 2026, after we’ve brushed up on our geography.”
There is a precedent for a Great Run event being moved - the 10-mile Great South Run is now a fixture on the coast in Southsea and Portsmouth in Hampshire, but its first iteration was held in Portsmouth’s bitter local rival city Southampton in 1990. It only stayed there for a year, though.