Event manager Cundy Sports Marketing and the ACT Cross Country Club are in dispute over the ownership and management of the event, held each April.

Both parties have engaged lawyers. Both insist they ''own'' the marathon. Both firmly believe they have the legal and moral high ground.

At the centre of the fight between the cross country club and Cundy is a memorandum of understanding, signed in 2002, giving Cundy the management rights to the event and financial autonomy. Before that, the club had paid Cundy an operator's fee.

At the time the memorandum was signed, the parties also established a separate sponsorship agreement, detailing the financial, equipment and volunteer support the club would supply to help Cundy run the event.

The current dispute arose midway through last year, when, with the expiry of the latest sponsorship agreement on the horizon, the club began a review into the marathon and its future management.

Among some of the concerns the club says its members had raised before the review were the poor level of support Cundy gave volunteers on race day, the increasing race entry costs and the fact the club was not reaping any financial rewards from the event.

Cundy will not disclose how much it earns from the race, citing commercial confidentiality, but the club's best guess is that Cundy earns more than $30,000 per race.

Cundy reacted angrily when it heard about the review and, via a letter from a legal firm, asserted its position as the effective owner of the marathon. Principal of the company, Dave Cundy, told The Canberra Times he felt obliged to protect his business interests.

''That certainly upset us, because they're talking about our livelihood,'' Mr Cundy said.

''They can review their sponsorship, but they're not in a position to review who organises the race.

''We thought it necessary to assert our legal position. They got an alternate legal position and relations have deteriorated ever since.'' Since that time letters have been fired back and forth between the two parties' solicitors. Cundy's legal opinion is that the memorandum of understanding, which has no specified end date, has precedence over any other agreement and gives it control of the marathon for as long as it wants it.

In response, the club has secured legal opinion that says the document is not legally binding.

For more, pick up a copy of today's Canberra Times