The Kepler Challenge Mountain Run usually run on the first weekend of December, has been postponed until January 15, 2022, due to the current Covid-19 situation.

Race director, Steve Norris said that the change of date was communicated to the runners last Tuesday night (October 26).

“Under the current Covid-19 guidelines, the event would have to be limited to 100 participants," Steve said.

"We couldn’t hold the briefing or the prizegiving. Our choices were to cancel or to postpone the event.

"The race brings a couple of thousand of people to Te Anau, which is good for the town and its businesses, so we didn’t want to cancel."

The race secretary, Rachel White said that to date 260 people had withdrawn from the Challenge and the Grunt since the change of date announcement was made.

“We have 300 on the waiting list, and I am contacting those people trying to fill those spots back up, but we have not made up for the number withdrawn yet,” Rachel said.

The event has hit a few stumbling blocks in the last two years. It had to change its course due to bad weather and flooding on part of the track. This is the third time in a row members of The Kepler Challenge Mountain Run Trust and organising committee faced serious dilemmas of whether to go ahead with the event and in what format.

Organisers hoped participants would understand this is a difficult situation [Covid restrictions] for all event organisers and that they remain committed to running another successful Kepler Challenge in January.

PHOTO: Graham Dainty