February 2021 Himeji Castle Marathon to Decide by August Whether to Cancel

On June 19 the Himeji city government announced that it would make a decision by the end of August on whether or not the 2021 edition of the Himeji Castle World Heritage Site Marathon will go ahead as planned in late February next year. City officials are studying the status of the coronavirus crisis and the actions taken by major races in other cities.

The Himeji Castle Marathon has been held every February since its launch in 2015, but in the early days of the coronavirus crisis this year's sixth running was canceled. Planning has been going ahead for next year's seventh edition, but no firm decisions have been made yet with regard to the event's schedule or field size. In its last running in 2019 it had a total of 6,938 finishers in its marathon division, with almost 2,000 more in its accompanying 5 km, family and kids' runs.

The organizing committee met in Himeji on the 19th to discuss the current situation and outlook. No official decision was reached as to whether the marathon will go ahead, but the late August deadline for making the decision was agreed upon taking into account the need to deal with registrations, signing supply contracts, preparation of promotional goods, and other administrative aspects.

Given the expectation of there being large crowds of runners, spectators and volunteers, marathons across the country have been canceled one after another this year due to the coronavirus crisis. Among them were two of Japan's biggest, the nearby Kobe Marathon and Osaka Marathon.

source article:
https://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/sougou/202006/0013438658.shtml
translated by Brett Larner

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