Legion's popular 101-km race next year is called off

The reason is that groups of the Ronda legionnaires will be on a six-month mission in Lebanon, and not enough will be left in the town to organise the event, the Legion has explained in a statement. They did consider several options which might have enabled the competition to take place, but "in order to guarantee the safety of the participants and ensure that the event is a success, there is no alternative but to cancel it next year," they said.

The Legion in Ronda will provide almost 200 troops to the next tour of duty of UN forces in Lebanon, making sure agreements between that country and Israel on their border are upheld. A small group of Legion troops will also go to Iraq as part of Nato work. The Lebanon mission will start in November.