Event News:

Disney Cancels Marathon
Skaters lose 3rd largest North American event

By Robert "Just the Factoids" Burnson
Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2007

After weeks of speculation, Disney World Sports made it official today: it is canceling the 2008 Disney World Inline Marathon.

In its prepared statement, Disney did not explain the reason for its decision, but it was no doubt influenced by its inability to attract a larger crowd and scheduling problems.

This year, 904 skaters participated in the event's full and half marathon. That made it the third largest inline marathon in North America.

In its statement, Disney left the door open for bringing back the event in the future. "We value the sport of inline skating and may explore adding an inline skating element to our endurance series in the future," said Marques Edge, sports publicity manager.

Full text of Disney's statement:

We are committed to providing our guests with the highest level of sporting events possible. To that end, while the Walt Disney World Inline Marathon Weekend has been a fun and successful event in the past, we are now gearing up for a full slate of events that will not include the Walt Disney World Inline Marathon in 2008. Our goal and focus is always to provide fresher, newer endurance events that will create a great experience for our competitors and guests, and we feel strongly that our series of endurance events for 2008 will provide competitors and guests with the best possible experience and athletic challenge. We value the sport of inline skating and may explore adding an inline skating element to our endurance series in the future. Continue to check our website (www.disneysports.com) for information. For questions or concerns, you can email: [email protected]

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