Warrnambool Running Festival cancelled for second straight year

The third edition of the festival was scheduled for September 19 but with Victoria continuing to battle another coronavirus outbreak the race committee decided to call off the event for a second consecutive year.

Race director and club president Mark Gavin said it was disappointing the event couldn't run but looked forward to a bumper 2022 edition.

"We know that it's better to host it in-person than doing it virtually and our planning meant when we do get to run it, it'll be better," he said.

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"We don't believe there'll be enough restrictions lifted to host the numbers we were hoping to get. We were hoping to get 300 people across the three distances - 150 for the half-marathon, 70 for the 12km and 70 for the six.

"To host an event like that, the government regulations would need to be lifted.

"Next year we'll get the chance to do it and being a new sub-committee working on running festival we've all learnt a lot and believe it'll get better and better."

Gavin said the state government's September 2 date for easing of restrictions would've been too short of notice to run the festival to its full capacity. He said rescheduling to a summer date would have clashed with a number of other events.

He also confirmed all registered runners would receive full refunds.

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