And Ankrom said he could only sit back and hope Sunday's numbers will show the government how much the sport means to the city. 'It's ironic,' said Ankrom yesterday. 'Here you have this huge, important athletic event and yet a decision is about to be made that will destroy the sport in Hong Kong.'

The final decision on whether athletics continues to be funded as an elite sport is expected when contracts expire on March 31.

The sport has appealed the decision but if funding is withdrawn, the athletes will be asked to leave the Sports Institute and, Ankrom says, they will have to start looking out for themselves.

'It [the decision] hasn't been made 100 per cent yet,' he said. 'But where there's smoke there's fire. At this stage all I know is what I read in the press - no one has even talked to me about what is going on.

'Athletes and coaches here are treated on a need-to-know basis and obviously the powers that be think we don't need to know.'

Ankrom - who has been in his post for three-and-a-half years - said in that time athletics in Hong Kong had undergone a 'hardcore' change.

'Every single athlete I have worked with has broken Hong Kong records,' said the American who includes the national coaching post in Bahrain among his previous appointments. 'The improvements being made are staggering. But all of it is about to be thrown away.

'You look at the Standard Chartered Marathon and at the money being invested in facilities for the East Asian Games and it just doesn't seem to make any sense.'

Athletics failed to attain the results required under the Sports Institute's two year elite sports review and if the decision is made on March 31, the sport will lose all its support. Ankrom believes the cuts will affect thousands of athletes, both currently in training and also the next generation coming up through the ranks.

'Athletics is the heart and soul of every major championships or games ever held,' said Ankrom. 'And if funds are cut, people will learn the hard way. The sport will be destroyed. It's a travesty.'

Representatives from his department did not return calls when asked to comment on the issue yesterday.

Secretary for Home Affairs Patrick Ho Chi-ping, whose department controls sport in Hong Kong, is currently overseas and could not be reached yesterday, while representatives from his department also did not return calls when asked to comment on the issue.

But the immediate ex-chairman of the Hong Kong Amateur Athletics Association, William KoWai-lam, gave his opinion.

'If you look at the number of people who will be running on Sunday, that points to the fact that there is an athletics culture here in Hong Kong and we are in danger of losing that,' said Ko who is chairman of the marathon's organising committee.

'It's certainly a strange situation. If you take away athletics as an elite sport thousands of young athletes will suffer.'