Walled City Marathon: Drop in runners behind race cancellation

Dan Tanui won the Walled City Marathon in 2018

Race organisers have blamed a considerable drop in runners and the lack of a major sponsor for the cancellation of Londonderry's annual marathon.

It was confirmed on Saturday that the Walled City Marathon will not go ahead in 2020.

Organisers have now revealed fewer than 170 runners had singed up for the race - down 80% on last year.

It has also now been confirmed the race had not secured a headline sponsor.

"We had lined up a few sponsors coming in at smaller levels, we were confident we could have made up the ground with smaller businesses," Walled City Marathon director Noel McMonagle told BBC Radio Foyle.

"But the catalyst was the drop in numbers. The people that registered is down 80% year on year.

"For this time of year we should have been sitting at 800-900 entries, we were sitting at fewer than 170," he said.

The hill on Fahan Street is regarded as one of the toughest stretches of the Derry marathon route

The event has attracted about 2,000 runners each year.

Mr McMonagle said without a main sponsor the event would have been a "damp squib."

He said organisers were hopeful the event would return in 2021.