The 2021 Dublin Marathon, which was scheduled for October, has been cancelled by race organisers due to the challenges posed by the pandemic.

It's the second year in a row that the race has been shelved.

It had been pencilled in for Sunday October 24th.

All entries will be valid for the 2022 race.

Full refunds will also be available for those who wish to avail of them. Those refunds are available to be claimed until Saturday July 31st.

Race director Jim Aughney said uncertainty was a key factor in making the decision.

“It is with great regret that we are cancelling the KBC Dublin Marathon for the second year in a row. Despite vigorous evaluations, there are still too many unknowns to be confident that we could provide a safe event given the pure scale of the marathon.

"We have a duty of care to the runners, volunteers, suppliers and supporters. This will be extremely disappointing news for all participants entered. We want to thank them for their continued support.”

He added that they had to make a call on the staging of the event now.

“We have come to a critical point in our event planning when a final decision needed to be made.

"We took into consideration the recent updates on modelling around Covid-19 and the immense challenges of creating a controlled, safe environment for the KBC Dublin Marathon which has a footprint of 26.2 miles with 25,000 runners and 200,000 supporters who line the streets to cheer them on.”

There will be a virtual Dublin Marathon on October 23rd, 24th and 25th.