The organisers of the Great North Run have apologised after finisher T-shirts and medals for the AJ Bell-sponsored Newcastle event were printed with a map of, err, Sunderland and the River Wear.
Geographically astute readers will already have noted that that is both a different city and river to Newcastle and the Tyne, which is where the event actually took place.
About 60,000 people took part in the half marathon yesterday, running 13.1 miles from the centre of Newcastle, across the River Tyne, and through Gateshead, finishing by the coast in South Shields, and at no point passing through Sunderland.
After receiving their finishers’ merchandise, runners noticed that the river on their T-shirts and medals matched the shape of another famous river in the North East, a lovely river by all accounts, but not the one they’d just run across.
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While the map on the medal was emlazoned with the words “Newcastle”, “Gateshead”, and “South Shields”, they appear to have been overlaid on to a map of Sunderland’s streets, shown either side of the River Wear.
The race’s blue finisher T-shirt also has the same outline in the shape of the Wear, at the centre of a more abstract map made up of words related to the run.
In perhaps the biggest slap in the face to knackered runners, several spotted what appears to be the Stadium of Light on the medal – the home of Newcastle’s arch footballing rivals, Sunderland AFC.
Taking things on the chin, a spokesperson for the Great North Run said: “Wear sorry. As the eagle-eyed have already spotted, the shape of the river on this year’s finisher T-shirt and medal is indeed the River Wear.”
The spokesperson also moved to quash online rumours that the medal redesign was an accidental leak of a change of location for the annual event next year: “To answer the rumours that this was the route reveal for next year … sorry to disappoint, it’s a mistake. Lots of people looked very closely at the designs and none of us picked it up.”
They added: “We had Newcastle United stars on the start line and the Stadium of Light on the medal. The Great North Run is truly a celebration of the region, even more so than we had planned. For the 60,000 who ran yesterday, you’ve got the most unique T-shirt and medal in Great North Run history, a keepsake that we’ll be talking about in 44 years’ time.”
The race’s founder, Sir Brendan Foster, said: “I loved the designs for the medal and T-shirt, spent ages marvelling at them, and never spotted the mistake, even when we hung it in Fenwick’s window. I’ve lived on the River Tyne my whole life and I should’ve noticed, but if I’d run the Great North Run yesterday, I’d still be wearing my medal with pride.”
He added: “Thanks to everyone who took part in an amazing event yesterday, and all the supporters who came out to cheer on the runners. It was a fantastic Great North Run, and we’re already looking forward to 2026, after we’ve brushed up on our geography.”
The River Tees was unavailable for comment.
Image: Jim Scott BBC/Twitter
