Veteran long distance runner Cal Steede has voiced his displeasure over the staging of the Validus Re Running of the Bulls 5K on the same day as the race honouring the legacy of past multiple May 24 champ and Hall of Famer Ed Sherlock.There was a sharp decline of participants at last month’s Ed Sherlock 5 Mile Road Race, which saw event hosts Swan’s Running Club suffer a loss in revenue, compared to the Running of the Bulls event which drew a considerably larger crowd.Steede, who has appeared in more than 100 marathons during his career, says staging both events on the same day was “disrespectful” to someone of Sherlock’s stature.“As far as we (Swan’s Running Club) are concerned it showed a lot of disrespect to Mr Sherlock by allowing this other race which has only been going on for two years to be held the same day,” he argued. “We pay a lot of money to the BNAA and we should be given some respect. My club pays them thousands of dollars every year for events for our races and there’s nothing wrong with them picking another date on the calendar.“Also to us what makes it even more significant is that February is known as Black History month and Mr Sherlock is known as the Black Stallion so it’s fitting for that race to be held in the time that we have it. They could’ve had the race (Running of the Bulls) before when there’s nothing on.“The BNAA approved the race being held without any consideration of Mr Sherlock and we were quite upset about it because, not only has Mr Sherlock had that race going for 20 years, but he’s also a past May 24 champion.“We are thankful for the people that did show up, even though we lost money on the race. Mr Sherlock himself was disappointed but he was glad the event still went on.”When contacted, BNAA refused to take the blame for the scheduling conflict.BNAA president Donna Watson said her organisation had urged Running of Bulls organisers to find an alternative date to hold their event to avoid clashing with the Ed Sherlock Race.She said Running of the Bulls organisers were also warned of the risk of stirring up controversy if they held their event on the same day as the Ed Sherlock Race.“The BNAA is generally very diligent when it comes to structuring the annual road running calendar to ensure that situations like this don't arise,” Watson said. “In this instance, when Ms. Roach (Running of the Bulls race director Candace Roach) asked to change the date, we requested that she choose another date.“Although for reasons we were unsure of, she stated that if they did not get that specific date they would cancel the race. We were left with few options in this regard and she stated that she will have the race either way."Running of the Bulls race director Roach was unavailable for comment at press time last night.