GOLD Coast Commonwealth Games boss Mark Peters has defended organisers after the horrific collapse of Scottish marathoner Callum Hawkins today.

Organisers have been slammed on social media for the running the race in hot conditions and for the lengthy delay in getting Hawkins medical treatment as he lay in obvious distress on the road.

At this morning’s daily media briefing, a veteran British athletics journalist questioned Peters why it took ‘so long’ to get a medic, saying: “It looked like a matter of life and death ... there’s a lot of angry people on the internet right now’.

Mr Peters said he was seeking more facts on the incident but ‘you can’t have medical people on every kilometre of the road .... they (medical staff) are professionally positioned.”

“Obviously the health of the athlete is absolutely prime,” he said.

“Sometimes medial people arrive too and the athlete has to decide whether they want to go on or not. I understand that was part of the discussion (about Hawkins) at a point in time.

“Incredibly athletes in whatever state they are want to finish, and we’ve seen that in marathons. Certainly, there’s no reason why there would be deliberate (medical) delays, and our thoughts are with the athlete.

“We will find out factually what happened and then others can learn.”

Mr Peters said athletes ran in ‘snow and 30-odd degree heat ... so we don’t think that’s an issue’.

“Ultimately these incredible athletes do run themselves to exhaustion and these rarely a marathon where someone isn’t collapsing,” he said.

“But we need to find out, was there an excessive delay? And that’s what we’ll do.”