Russian and Belarusian marathoners will pay the price for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by being banned from this month’s Boston Marathon.
The Boston Athletic Association announced that residents of the two countries who were accepted into the April 18 marathon or the BAA 5K race held two days earlier as part of the open registration process cannot race because of the invasion and subsequent atrocities wrought by Russian armed forces, aided by Belarus, in late February.
“Like so many around the world, we are horrified and outraged by what we have seen and learned from the reporting in Ukraine,” said Tom Grilk, president and CEO of the BAA. “We believe that running is a global sport, and as such, we must do what we can to show our support to the people of Ukraine.”
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Any Ukrainian runners who registered for the two races but cannot compete will receive a refund or the option to defer to another year.
Belarusian and Russian citizens who do not reside in those countries will be allowed to run, but not under their countries’ flags; the BAA is unwilling to recognize the country affiliation or the countries’ flags. No runners from Russia or Belarus had been invited by the BAA to run any of the organization’s races.
The BAA said it would make “reasonable” attempts to refund the Russian or Belarusian runners who no longer can run “within the constraints as imposed by federal and international sanctions.”
Michael Silverman can be reached at michael.silverman@globe.com.