Richmond Half Marathon: 10 Run-Fest runners taken to hospital during scorching hot event

A south-west London running event was cancelled on Sunday (September 10) after water stations ran dry during one of the hottest days of the year.

The Richmond Run-Fest, which was held over the weekend and features races including a marathon, half-marathon and 10k, involves a route which takes in a number of key south-west London sites, from Kew Gardens and Hampton Court Palace.

On Sunday, during the half-marathon, it had to be shut down with more than 1,000 participants still on the track, as the hot conditions resulted in a number of heat-related illnesses.

While there were no fatalities, the race director, Tom Bedford, apologised for a situation that could have been “worse” were it not for “heroic efforts” from the medics.

Mr Bedford wrote in a statement that on Sunday, “our control room were receiving a high number of calls from our amazing marshals. This was obviously largely heat related and put a large demand on our medical responders.

“Heat related illness only has one fix and that is to cool the patient down. To do this safely it takes time to cool down runners before responders can move onto other calls.”

He said two of the water stations had run out, due to the organisers miscalculating the number of people who needed more than two cups per stop, and the three mist showers provided on the course “weren’t adequate”.

Several runners took to X to raise concerns about the race, with one describing it as “shabby”, and another saying it was “unsafe and unorganised”.

Mr Bedford wrote: “My final apology and thank you goes out to all our volunteers, Scouts, rugby teams, family members and staff who fought against all the odds (in the heat) to put the event on. I’m sorry I did not oversee the delivery of everything we wanted to and I’m so lucky to have such a great team behind the event. As a team I promise you we will collectively improve a better event next year.”

A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “At 11:08am on Sunday, we received the first of a number of 999 calls relating to people becoming unwell during the Richmond Half Marathon.

“We sent multiple resources to the scene, including 11 ambulance crews, a medic in a fast-response car, an incident response officer, and members of our hazardous area response team (HART).

“We treated 13 people at the scene, ten of whom were taken to hospital. Three people were discharged at the scene.”

Sunday saw temperatures in excess of 30 degrees in London, as part of a heatwave which had lasted most of the week.