ORGANISERS of this year’s Bournemouth Bay Run have come under further criticism after it emerged water stations ran dry half-way through the race.

As reported in the Daily Echo, many runners ended up covering much more ground than planned following ‘confusion over the marshalling’ during the 10K event on Saturday.

Jon Weaver, Bournemouth council’s head of resort marketing and events, apologised for the marshalling mistake, which is believed to have affected between 100 and 200 runners.

And now it has emerged that water stations ran out of supplies during the race, which led to some runners drinking from half-empty bottles that had been left on the ground as they battled against dehydration.

Commenting on the Daily Echo website, one runner said: “We had a bottle of water at the three mile station, but at the six mile point they had totally ran out, so nothing.

“We then had to continue with no water to the nine mile station, where again the water had run out.”

They added: “We were told to run to the next tap where there were some cups. Several of us were drinking out of the rejected half empty bottles off the ground, we were so dehydrated.

“We were eventually given a bottle of water at mile 11.”

Bournemouth Borough Council said the team acted “immediately” as soon as it emerged supplies had run low.

A council spokesman said: “Water was provided at the six and nine mile stations however due to issues with the 10K race this meant demand at those stations increased.

“As soon as we were made aware of this the events team acted immediately to replenish those water stations with additional supplies.”