Apology after water cups reused at half-marathon

About 10,000 people took part in the Brighton Half-Marathon

The rinsing and reusing of paper cups at one of the Brighton Half-Marathon's water stations has led to an apology being issued by the organisers.

The decision to rinse and reuse the cups when new ones ran out during Sunday's event has been described as "an error of judgement".

Organisers say they will be speaking to the volunteers involved.

A leading virologist said the risk of passing on germs was very low.

In a statement, the organisers said: "Towards the end of the race one of the our water stations ran out of paper cups for a short period of time, and under pressure made an error of judgement to wash and reuse cups to meet demand from runners for water.

"Runners were told the cups were being reused at the time," they said.

Organisers say runners were told that the cups were being rinsed and reused

The organiser's statement continued: "We do not condone any sharing or reusing of cups.

"We take this very seriously and will now be speaking to our teams post-race to strengthen our processes for the future."

Sarah Pitt, a virologist at the University of Brighton, told BBC Radio Sussex: "It's not ideal, but the only thing you can really catch is coughs and colds.

"If people are running the marathon, they're probably feeling fit and well before they started out, so the risk is extremely low," she said.

"If anyone has got a cold having run the marathon, they might have actually been cooking one themselves, because sometimes doing vigorous exercise reactivates the cold virus."

Follow BBC Sussex on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail] or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.