Position on the decision to exclude Russian and Belarusian competitors from the 19th Cracovia Marathon and accompanying events
On March 7, we published an announcement on the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian competitors from the 19th Cracovia Marathon and the accompanying events. In connection with the detailed interpretation of World Athletics, we present new facts on this matter.
On March 1, World Athletics (formerly IAAF) decided to exclude Russian and Belarusian athletes, teams and officials with immediate effect from all World Athletics Series events taking place in the foreseeable future. This decision was related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Following the publication of our March 7 note (https://cracoviamaraton.pl/russian-and-belarusian-participants-excluded-from-the-19th-cracovia-marathon-and-the-accompanying-events?hl=en), World Athletics has informed us that their March 1 decision applies, at least for the time being, only to their World Athletics Series events. The Cracovia Marathon isn’t part of this group of competitions.
Having received this clarification, we decided to reduce the scope of exclusion of Russian and Belarusian competitors from the 19th Cracovia Marathon but people from Belarus and Russia who have a permanent residence permit in Poland (e.g., permanent residence card) will be able to stand at the start of our runs.
Documents authorizing to take part in our runs:
- a document confirming the refugee status or guaranteed political asylum,
- long-term EU resident status,
- permanent residence card in Poland or another EU country,
- Pole's card,
- a document confirming the start of education at a university or other educational unit,
- confirmation of employment,
- working visa,
- humanitarian visa.
People who want to take part in our races cannot officially represent state-owned Russian or Belarusian sports clubs/organizations.
The decision to exclude runners from Russia and Belarus from our running events (19th Cracovia Maraton and accompanying events) was not easy for us but we decided to take this step as a gesture of solidarity with our eastern neighbors, the Ukrainians, who have recently experienced The Russian Federation of military violence and aggression on an unprecedented scale. Listening to the numerous voices expressing the lack of support for hostilities from people of Belarusian and Russian origin who have been associated with our country and city for years, we decided to narrow the scope of our decisions.
We would like to point out that we are not the only organizer of Polish running events that made the decision to remove Russians and Belarusians. Moreover, it is in line with the position of the United Nations, NATO and the European Union with regard to imposing sanctions on citizens of countries whose troops take an active part in the military invasion of Ukraine.
We are concerned about the amount of negative emotions and comments that have appeared on this matter. We would like to emphasize that we do not accept any manifestations of aggression and we call for the preservation of the culture of expression and compliance with basic communication standards.
We are invariably open to substantive discussion and constructive criticism, which is why we would like to thank all those who spoke in a matter-of-fact manner on this important issue - we respect every position and sentence expressed in a cultural way.
We waited over 1000 days for the start of the 19th Cracovia Marathon. During the 3 years of the pandemic period, we tried to maintain a positive bond with our runners from all over the world, incl. creating the project Cracovia to-ge(t)-ther(e), which was an expression of connecting us all through sport. We hope that on April 24, 2022, we will meet at Krakow's Main Market Square and together in a spirit of unity, solidarity experience the running festival.