Kathy Loper Events Offers Participants 3 Options
Kathy Loper of Kathy Loper Events wrote Great Wall Marathon participants yesterday that the Great Wall Marathon Organizing Committee has postponed the May 24, 2003 event until May 22, 2004:

"With the continuing situation of SARS throughout Asia, and now more prominently acknowledged in Beijing, the Great Wall Marathon Organizing Committee has posponed this year's evednt until May 2004.

"I spoke personally late yesterday evening with the event director who informed me of this decision. Although he felt that anyone's chances of contracting the disease in a city of 13 million people is minute, the purpose of joining the GWM is for people to thoroughly enjoy their holiday and the Great Wall experience. With the increased number of cases now being reported in Beijing, the cosing of schools and with WHO (World Health Organization) now also listing Beijing as a city to be avoided, he is correct in making this decision."

Loper is offering participants three choices:

1. Run the Vienna City Marathon on May 25, 2003 instead (details are pending). 2. Return GWM marathon payment except a deposit to be applied toward any of Kathy Loper Events international running tours including the GWM in May 2004. 3. Refund the entire GWM payment.