Organisers are considering staging the event on October 25th, 28th or 29th and hope to decide on a date by Friday. The revolution in the Serbian capital last Thursday and subsequent ousting from power of President Slobodan Milosevic put in jeopardy the fifth edition of the 6km race around a historic fortress. However, this was not enough dissuade the organisers, after the event went ahead in similarly trying circumstances last year when bombing caused the closure of the city's airport, resulting in an eight-hour journey for some of the athletes. The race's biggest advertised attraction, Paul Tergat, has already agreed to compete at the end of the month to try to at last win having been runner-up every time the event has been staged so far.
Organizers are also optimistic of securing the participation of most of the other elite athletes.
We have a few other people that we have to contact again to see if the date would fit them, but many have indicated they could come. It seems we will have a fairly good starting field. Other than a change of date, it is hoped the event will go ahead exactly as planned. We are in a situation now that after what has happened, there is a formation of government and all other institutions that are vital for the race, so we cannot do very much ourselves now - we are waiting for the political groups to form then after that we will see about the dates. Post it to the Athletics Online Discussion List.