Malta Marathon organiser Joe Micallef has decided to pull out of the organisation of the SportMalta Charity Marathon just over 24 hours after it was announced that he agreed to join the government-led race.
The Malta Marathon was cancelled on Tuesday, after organiser Joe Micallef clashed with Transport Malta over the proposed route.
Runners who had been training for the event, which was set to take place on March 6, were outraged by the sudden cancellation. Some had even made travel arrangements to the island specifically for the race.
Since then, the government has said that Transport Malta and Sport Malta had teamed up to organise the Sport Malta Charity Marathon.
On Thursday, a press conference was organised by SportMalta and Transport Malta to give details of the new race which will also be held on March 6. During the briefing, Mark Cutajar, the SportMalta CEO, had invited Joe Micallef to join the organisation of the newly-formed race.
Micallef met with Cutajar on Friday and an agreement was reached between the two parties so that he would form part of the organising committee.
However, there was another twist on Saturday night when Joe Micallef issued a statement on behalf of the Malta Marathon organisers saying that they had a change of heart and had decided to distance themselves from the SportMalta Charity Marathon.