The showpiece 10-kilometre event on December 13 features a who's who of Australian distance running including 20 with personal bests under 30 minutes.

All attracted by the fast, flat East Tamar Highway course, the field includes past winners Ben St Lawrence, Dave McNeill, Jack Rayner and Liam Adams plus Burnie 10 champions Jordy Williamsz and Ryan Gregson.

Postponed from its normal June timeslot due to COVID-19, the one-off summer festival also has a world-class line-up for a half-marathon run along a new course taking in the West Tamar.

Australian record-holder Brett Robinson will start favourite having run 59:57 in Japan earlier this year and twice set the fastest 10km road times on Australian soil in winning Hobart's Run The Bridge.

The women's race will see Launceston's Rio Olympian Milly Clark renew a rivalry with Canadian record holder Andrea Seccafien which saw them in a sprint finish at Run The Bridge in February with Jess Stenson (nee Trengove) also attempting to reach her third straight Olympics.

"I never thought I'd sleep in my own bed the night before my biggest race of 2020," said Clark, who was Australia's best performer in the 2016 Olympic marathon.

"But here we are and I'm looking forward to trying to set a PB on the new half-marathon course.

"Locals really seem to have embraced it. Everyone I talk to around Launceston is getting really excited to host such a major running event, in what's been such a rough year for everyone."

Australia's second fastest ever 10,000m runner, St Lawrence, is bringing down a large contingent of the squad he coaches in Sydney.

"As soon as we heard the Launceston Running Festival was on and that the borders were most likely going to be open - we jumped straight online and booked," he said.

"There's a huge group of us from Run Crew coming down to make the most of the opportunity to race on a fast course in what looks set to be a very deep field.

"I had originally entered the 10k, but am now considering the half-marathon. We can't wait!"

The women's 10km field is equally loaded. Course record-holder Sinead Diver returns, along with dual Olympic finalists Eloise Wellings and Genevieve Gregson.

Sydney Olympic 5000m silver medallist Sonia O'Sullivan is also looking forward to the challenge of racing a fast course and still in amazing shape at the age of 51.

The half-marathon will retrace the steps of the established 10km course along the East Tamar Highway but take runners further north, beyond the junction with University Way. It will also cross over the South Esk River and include a section of the West Tamar Highway.

All races will revert back to a Lindsay Street start line used when the Launceston 10 was first run.

Organisers said 149 entrants from outside Tasmania had already signed up to race.

In addition to the half-marathon (6.30am start) and 10km (8.45am), there will be 5km (8.20am) and mile (8.55am) races.

Brett Robinson 59:57, Joel Tobin-White 1:02:03, Ed Goddard 1:04:07, Dave Ridley 1:04:43, Aidan Hobbs 1:06:26, Brett Ellis 1:06:47, Archie Reid 1:07:24, Ben Kelly 1:07:50, Declan King-Smith 1:12:00, Lachlan Oakes 1:12:37, Samuel Maurer 1:16:40, Oliver Cook 1:18:06, Sam McEntee debut

Andrea Seccafien 1:09:38, Milly Clark 1:10:48, Jess Stenson 1:10:59, Claire Ashworth 1:16:17, Meriem Daoui 1:16:35, Tara Prowse 1:18:00

Ben St Lawrence 27:24:00, Dave McNeill 27:45, Jack Rayner 27:59, Liam Adams 28:11, Riley Cocks 28:46, Kieren Tall 28:47, Dejen Gebreselassie 28:54, Jordy Williamsz 29:06, Ryan Gregson 29:09, Tom Fawthorpe 29:16, Jake Birtwhistle 29:23, Liam Boudin 29:24, Kevin Batt 29:27, Kieren Perkins 29:32, Nick Earl 29:34, Tom Do Canto 29:35, Andrew Waring 29:36, David Thomas 29:42, Jacob Cocks 29:43, Dan Wallis 29:45, Sam Clifford 30:16, Nick Baggott 30:20, Michael Marantelli 30:21, Zac Newman 30:25, Matt Gunther 30:35, Matt Davy 30:42, Alex Ritchie 30:45, Nathan Pearce 30:59, Brendan Press 31:10, Ben Covington 31:10, Ryan Powell 31:10, Aaron Humphrey 31:36, Peter Bracken 31:39, Jack Maxwell 31:40, Jonathan Butler 31:45, Liam Werrett 32:22, Brad Hetharia 33:00, Nathan McLachlan 33:03, Chris Sullivan 33:04, Evan Brett 33:05, Bryan Tuit 33:14, David Costello 33:30, Jed Matthews 33:30, Tim Rayner 33:40, Brad Taylor 33:45, Robert Elkerton 33:49, Ricky Barnewall 33:52, Matthew Zegveld 34:29, Tim Broxup 34:44, Hayden Bishop 34:47, Corey Stanley 34:56, Ryan Kelly 35:00, Lukas Pilkington 35:30, Liam Williams 36:06, Sam Kelly 36:06, Paul Carter 37:14

Sonia O'Sullivan 30:47, Eloise Wellings 31:14, Sinead Diver 31:25, Izzi Batt-Doyle 32:13, Genevieve Gregson 32:22, Tara Palm 32:42, Natalie Rule 32:57, Casey Wood 33:05, Gemma Maini 33:50, Karinna Fyfe 33:57, Mel Townsend 34:00, Samantha Phillips 34:37, Jeet Aich 34:41, Eilidh Bell 35:52, Emma Collyer 35:55, Annabel White 36:00, Alice Burgin 36:11, Bronwyn Hager 36:30, Vanessa Wilson 36:53, Natasha Mapley 36:57, Summer Dingemanse 37:00