ORGANISERS of Leyland's Millennium Marathon have been inundated by enquiries after the Citizen revealed that the race could be screened on television.

More than 12,000 runners have already asked for details about the British Millennium Marathon, due to take place in Leyland on January 2, 2000, after organisers launched a massive advertising campaign to entice the world's best runners.

Demand for information was so high at last weekend's London marathon that organisers of the Leyland race have employed an agency to deal with publicity.

A spokesman for South Ribble Harriers, who are responsible for the event, said: "Our hot-line number was jammed solidly almost as soon as our stand was erected in London.

"We had printed off 40,000 leaflets to hand out and had 1,000 t-shirts available. We were expecting it to do well, but not this well."

Interest in the event has come from top class athletes living as far away as Argentina and Croatia, so it looks set to be a very big event."

The event will also be a massive boost to Leyland as a whole. TV companies are said to be interested in screening the event and Barclays Bank have already agreed to sponsor it, as have sports giant Mizuno.

South Ribble Council are also supporting the event, which will provide a huge boost to the town's economy as visitors and runners flock to there.

It is hoped more than £100,000 will be raised for the disabled childrens' charity Get Kids Going.

As patron of the charity, Sebastian Coe has agreed to start the race, which will be run entirely within the boundaries of South Ribble.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.