Four T&T na­tion­al par­tic­i­pat­ed in the 26.2 mile run Boston marathon which end­ed trag­i­cal­ly yes­ter­day when two peo­ple were killed and close to 100 in­jured when two bombs ex­plod­ed near the fin­ish line.

Mar­lon Bas­combe, Christo­pher and In­grid Math­i­son, who all live in the US and Learie Leza­ma (T&T Road Run­ners Club) of St. James, who trav­elled to Boston along with his wife were the T&T par­tic­i­pants. Up to late yes­ter­day Road Run­ners Club pres­i­dent David Spicer was try­ing to con­tact Leza­ma.

Spicer said he was op­ti­mistic that none of the T&T run­ners were af­fect­ed. "I dont think Leza­ma was af­fect­ed. He com­plet­ed the race close to one hour ahead of the time of the first bomb­ing. He fin­ished in 3 hours, 28 min­utes and 35 sec­onds while the first ex­plo­sion hap­pened some four hours af­ter the start of the race.

Based on the re­ports I have seen on the tele­vi­sion the ex­plo­sion hap­pened be­hind the spec­ta­tors and I am hop­ing he was not in that area af­ter he was fin­ished. I am as­sum­ing he is well. We have been try­ing to con­tact him and his wife but have been un­suc­cess­ful." Spicer added that he is sad­dened by the in­ci­dent.

"It is sad that a sport­ing event could be used to ex­press a view, whether it is po­lit­i­cal or re­li­gious."

T&T marathon race di­rec­tor Fran­cis William-Smith al­so de­scribed his shock and hor­ror at the in­ci­dent. "I re­al­ly hope it is not as bad as it looks on the tele­vi­sion. It is not good news for marathon run­ning, not just in the US, but for the sport across the world.

"Marathon is a mass par­tic­i­pa­tion event as 26,0000 ran in Boston. It is a tragedy for marathon run­ning. It is some­thing we would not want to see hap­pen again."

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