THE Snowdonia Marathon Eryri has been cancelled with thousands of runners and spectators forced to call of their visit to the area.

Organisers of the famous race said they made the “heart-breaking decision” amid concerns over visitor numbers to Llanberis in October.

“With four months to go until race day, we have taken the heart-breaking decision to cancel our proposed 2021 event,” a social media statement said.

“This has been enormously difficult for us and has not been undertaken lightly.

“We have spent a long time weighing up our options but we just don’t feel that we can bring that number of visitors to Llanberis without compromising the safety of our community.”

It is the second successive cancellation of the Snowdonia Marathon Eryri, which sees runners race from Llanberis up Pen y Pass, to the Pen Y Cwyryd junction and along the A498.

The decision follows concerns from Gwynedd Council and Llanberis Community Council that thousands of runners and supporters flooding into the town would make social distancing measures “impossible to obey”.

Llanberis Community Council told the race organisers: “As a community council we are unable to support any events that are in the Llanberis electoral ward this year with the pandemic still facing us.

“Marathon Eryri is so popular, especially with locals from Llanberis and nearby villages and towns, and we are always so supportive and grateful to the thousands of runners and supporters that travel to Llanberis each year for the event.

“However, we feel that with spectators so close together on the narrow Llanberis High Street, it would be impossible to obey the two-metre rule, which is still in place here in Wales and even though vaccinations are doing well here in the UK, we do think that it as hard as this might be, it would better to put off the event once more.”

Organisers said all entries will be rolled over to next year’s race on October 29.

Members of the running community commented on the Snowdonia Marathon Eryi Facebook page to share their disappointment.

“Such a shame this amazing race can't go ahead this year again but will be ready for it next year and hopefully things are back to more normal race conditions then,” one said.

Another said: “Thank you for making the decision in good time and letting us all know what’s going on. The world’s heading in the right direction so hopefully we’ll have more normality next year!”

A third added: “This is one race I will happily wait two years to run again – there is nothing quite like it!"