Marathon winner protests KGHM sponsorship, won’t run this year

SPORTS — There will be no threepeat for Ryan Day at the Kamloops Marathon.

The 31-year-old Day, who won the first two editions of the marathon, won’t be in this year’s race event though organizers would welcome him back.

Day says he won’t compete July 27 because he opposes the Ajax mine project. Mine proponent KGHM International is a sponsor of the event.

Race spokesman Christopher Seguin called the situation “regrettable.”

Day, who grew up in Kitimat and is a member of the Bonaparte band, is one of Canada’s top long-distance runners. He won the first Kamloops Marathon in 2012 with a time of two hours, 35 minutes, 25 seconds.

He repeated last year with a time of 2:42:19.9, standing on the winners’ podium wearing a shirt featuring the word Ajax with an X through it.

An email from the Marathon organization asked him not to do it again and Day said that “plays into” his decision but the reason he won’t run this year is KGHM International’s sponsorship.

“It’s to take a principled position,” Day told CBC Kamloops Daybreak’s Shelley Joyce today. “It’s maintaining and living principles. It’s about role modeling.”

Seguin said the marathon raises funds to help students. “We don’t choose the sponsors, we go out into the community and try to find support wherever we can.”

KGHM spokesperson Robin Bartlett told A.M. News the company had no involvement in asking Day not to use the race for political messaging.

“People are entitled to say or do what they want. We just want to support the marathon because it’s a worthwhile cause. We would never ask anybody not to do something.”

She said KGHM put almost $200,000 toward community causes last year.