community update
Gibraltar’s Marathon Men (& Women) As with most great ideas, the London Marathon probably started in a pub. The Dyset Arms near Richmond Park set the scene for two athletes, John Disley and Chris Brasher, back in 1978 as they talked about the New York Marathon with fellow runners who often popped in for a pint of bitter. Urged on by the enthusastic tales of other runners who had completed the marathon, the two decided to give it a go and entered the competition in 1979. On their return Brasher wrote an article for the Observer entitled The World’s Most Human Race, which told how over 11,000 people from 40 countries “laughed, cheered and suffered” along with over a million spectators. There was a UK marathon at the time, but held in the countryside where it was watched by few. The idea of a marathon in the capital came to fruition from a lunch held by Donald Trelford, editor of the Observer at the time. Brasher and Disley were invited to meet the different authorities needed to make the race happen. And happen it did. 1981 saw the first marathon through the centre of London, passing the major tourist sites which kept the tourist board happy. The carefully designed course which closed off 26 miles of London streets was approved by the police, and a fortutitious sponsorship from Gillette (who had just dropped their sponsorship of cricket’s Gillette Cup) put the show on the road with backing for at least the following three years. But the real growth of the London marathon has been in the money raised for charity. In fact, in 2008 the event broke its own Guinness record when a total of £46.7 million was raised for hundreds of charitable causes — that is just about £1.8 million per mile! From a local perspective, Gibraltar has seen runners regularly participating in the race, and 2010 is no different. Local runners who
will be cheered on by the crowds on 25th April include John Hunter of O’Reillys who will be raising money for MENCAP, Glendon Martinez of the Philatelic Bureau who will be running for Whizz Kids Charity whose aims are to assist children with sever mobility issues, Matthew Byrne for Multiple Sclerosis, Tommy Cornelio (Snr) is joining in to raise funds for Pre-Clampsia, Tommy Cornelio (Jnr) is participating for Multiple Sclerosis and John Wood of Ocean Village will be pacing himself for his chosen charity while Daniel Romero, Yaro Borge, Evelyn Phillips, Aaron Smith and Karl Moody — all of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment will be raising
Crowds and participants in last year’s London Marathon
money for St. John’s Ambulance. John’s as the charity is the Patron of Although they are running as indi- the Regiment. viduals rather than representing the The Gibraltar Magazine wishes Regiment, they have close ties to St them all success on the 25th! n
netting the championship The Gibraltar Under 17 Netball Squad came home recently holding the champions trophy of Netball Europe Division 2 which took place in Belfast in March.
Gibraltar’s Under 17 Netball Team in Belfast
It seems in the last few months Gibraltar has exceeded in bringing international awareness to what can be achieved by a relatively small community and the Netball Championship is another important feather in the cap. Congratulations must go to the whole team, captained by Janice Moreno: Lucia Zammitt, Amy Valverde Benatar, Zaynia Reyes, Holly Greig, Noelle Laguea, Maddie Cruz, Sophie Mansfield, Louise Rodriguez, Megan Martinez and Harriett Currie. “All the girls have shown great commitment to their training,” Moira Gomez, of the Gibraltar Netball Association told us. “And they have had to balance this with GCSE, AS and A2 studies. They are true ambassadors of Gibraltar and the association is really proud of this great achievement.” n
MO Productions festival of success The 8th Gibraltar Stage Dance Festival, organised by M.O. Productions was held last month at the John Mackintosh Hall Theatre. Over 220 dancers from Gibraltar, Italy and Spain took part at this year’s event. Nicola Dewar won the £500 bursary award, Joelle Davis won best female dancer whilst Michael Jouffray took the prize for best male dancer and Zuleika Green took the prize for best choreographer. n
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GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE • APRIL 2010