Burnie Ten race director Rick Ferguson believes it would have been irresponsible to go ahead with the iconic race in 2020 with so much still unknown about what life will be like in October as the state continues to recover from the COVID-19 shutdown.
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The decision was made on Thursday not to hold the event it is traditional format [with a virtual run to take its place]. The last time the 10 kilometre event was not held was in 1984.
Cancelling the event completely or moving it another date was not an option, with March or April the only real chances, but that would have potentially clashed with events like the Burnie Challenge and Run Devonport.
Ferguson also believed the Burnie Ten would not work as well away from its traditional time slot in October, hence why the difficult decision was made, which had to be made by the end of the month for organisational reasons.
He was also mindful that things could change quickly, like in Victoria.
"I just wasn't confident how many people would actually feel comfortable doing the race in October if we did go ahead, given we don't know what the Tasmanian landscape will look like,'' Ferguson admitted.
"We just couldn't take a punt and hope everything would be okay, and there is no way you can be 1.5 metres apart at the start line in Wilson Street, which is very intimate and people are packed, so it would have been irresponsible to continue."