London Marathon hopefuls are unable to find out if they will run in 2023 after its website crashed.
The ballot for the 2023 race, which is due to return to its normal slot on April 23, closed in early October with runners required to sign up to stand any chance of getting a spot.
Those who had entered were sent e-mails from organisers on October 24 but the message asked them to click through onto the London Marathon website.
As they did that, users were met with a series of messages to tell them that their result was unavailable and the website was broken.
A message was posted on the London Marathon Twitter account confirming the issue, with the website not loading and impossible to be reached by visitors.
It read: "We are aware of an issue that means some of you can't currently access your ballot results. We’re working on a fix and will update you as soon as we can. For the moment please wait until we have provided an update before trying to click through to your results. Apologies, TCSLM."
The outage was met with an angry reaction from runners, who had been waiting to find out if they had been successful.
Twitter user, @jennifersophiee posted: "I mean, I’m sure making us all click a link in an email to find out if we got a London Marathon place or not seemed like a cute, fun idea and all… but at least make sure your website isn’t going to crash when everyone clicks said link, good grief.
@TrunsLA added: "It’s 2022 and websites still can’t handle numerous people on their servers at once. I really just want to know if I’m in for London or if I need to find a new marathon next year."
Those comments were echoed by @shennae84, who posted: "Why doesn’t the London marathon ballot just tell you in the email if you’re in or not man… stupid website is down."
