RUNNERS who paid to take part in the Bolton Marathon will not get their money back, the organiser has said after confirming just minutes ago the event had been cancelled.

Race director Richard Smith posted on social media this afternoon that Bolton Marathon LTD would be wound up and would not be replying to individual messages.

Bolton Marathon still going ahead: Organiser hopes to reassure residents

The announcement comes after The Bolton News received complaints by those who had signed up to run the race that no information was forthcoming.

The marathon was due to make a comeback after 30 years

And between 1,200 and 1,400 entrants to the marathon parted with between £55 and £75 to take part in the race while main benefactor Bolton Hospice has not received any proceeds.

The race is estimated to have raised around £100,000.

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In his post, Mr Smith blamed Covid for the cancellation.

He wrote: "I know I’ve been quiet over the last few months and for that I sincerely apologise.

"I have left social media for very personal reasons and even before the future of the race was in jeopardy.

"The last 12 months have taken their toll on me financially as the Bolton Marathon is something I’ve invested in heavily with my own money and years of my time. I wholeheartedly believed this was going to be one of the best races in the world and I set it up to be just that. And that was the appeal for so many people from around the world when they signed up.

"I’ve been exploring as many opportunities as possible to keep everyone’s entries secure and to give the race a chance in the future however, I have now exhausted all avenues to do so and without success.

"This leads me with no choice but to say that due to the financial impact the Coronavirus pandemic has had on the company over the last 2 years, the event is no longer financially viable, and will not be returning as planned.

"As per entry terms and conditions, all entries are non-refundable. I understand this is not the situation anyone wants, however, the economic challenges we’ve faced through the last 2 years gives me no choice.

"Bolton Marathon LTD will now go through the winding up process and as a result I’m unable to reply to individual emails and messages and social media pages and the website will be closed down with immediate effect.

"I sincerely thank you for all your support over the last 3 years and I'm sorry I've not been able to deliver what I set out to achieve back in 2018."

Bolton Marathon was set to make a comeback when it was put forward in October 2019, and said Mr Smith attracted an 'incredible response'

Mr Smith said the company was a non-profit organisation with any profit made being donated to a charity.

He said during lockdown March 2020, entries stopped coming in, a' major global sponsor had been lost'.

Mr Smith wrote: "As Director of the race, I tried to do the right thing using the information available to me at the time. I had no special insight, only the same information that everyone else had from the media and the government. We put staff on furlough and kept doing what we could to keep it alive online with virtual challenges, training videos, interviews with experts and our amazing running community pushed on.

"We had a glimmer of optimism in August 2020 when we released the date for the rescheduled 2021 race, we had a handful of new entries but this was sadly short lived. When Lockdown 2 came in January 2020, the plans for the 2021 event were quickly dashed and we had no choice but to cancel the event. Keeping the business running with no income was becoming increasingly more difficult yet I believed that there were still avenues we needed to explore to keep the event going. Against advice from some of those closest to me, I refused to believe this was the end and to wind the company up so soon."

Instead the marathon and 10k went virtual from May 2021.

Mr Smith said:"However, I couldn’t open entries with the potential of less than 100 new entries. The cost of organising this race is very significant and I had to be sure that it was definitely happening if I was to start taking entry money from people. A totally different position from October 2019 when we opened entries based on over 5000 registrations of interest."