Organisers make up to woman for Marathon loss

Auckland marathon organisers have agreed to compensate Melanie Burke, who ran the fastest time but did not win the women's event due to the race being started early.

The Waiheke runner was second in the event behind Sharon Fitzgerald but ran 49 seconds faster.

Burke was not on the start line when the start gun was fired about six minutes before the advertised start time of 6.30am. It is understood it would have been her first win.

Steven Brown, a spokesman for the organisers, said he had agreed compensation with Burke, who is on holiday in Australia, and she was "more than happy". Mr Brown would not disclose what the compensation was.

The women's marathon winner won a cash prize of $2500 and second place received $1500.

Mr Brown said a compensation agreement had also been reached with Wellington runner Sarah Christie, who missed the half marathon race because of the muck-up.

Christie, a four-time winner of the event, instead competed in, and won, the 10km fun run which carried no prize money. First prize for the half marathon was $1500.

Mr Brown said organisers had also reached a private agreement with Christie. Both women would get free entry next year.

The early start upset many athletes and has attracted criticism on internet message boards.

"I know a bunch of decent runners missed the start [because] they started the thing early," said one. "Can you imagine if they started say Chicago five minutes early and [world record holder Paul] Tergat was [in the toilet]. Perhaps some people should ask for their $ back."

The race was started early due to a series of unfortunate circumstances. Race director Gary Upson started the countdown after being told by officials working for the company in charge of event timing that it was 6.25am. They had taken this time from the clock on the timing system's central server, which was fast.

Paul Ryken, head of Global Timing Services, said his company did the timing for the cycling event, K2, the day before without problem. He said it was up to the race organisers to say when the race started.

Mr Upson said: "We very much regret that we had this early start. It's disappointing.

"We spent 12 months planning for the event and for a process like this to let the event down, it's embarrassing."