Tom Tate, Renee Souter, Paul Donovan, Benita Willis and Cameron Hart

Australia’s most popular holiday marathon event – the Village Roadshow Theme Parks Gold Coast Marathon – is set to return in 2021 as today it was announced that entries open at 9:00am on Monday 15 February.

Mayor of the City of Gold Coast Tom Tate said it was welcome news for the Gold Coast and Queensland after the event was forced to turn virtual in 2020 in response to COVID-19.

“I’m thrilled to see the event back after the coronavirus-driven loss of the 2020 edition of the IAAF Gold Label marathon saw the Gold Coast miss out on many million of dollars in economic impact.

“The value of this event to the Gold Coast cannot be underestimated,” Cr Tate said.

“Every winter for over 40 years, the marathon and associated events have enticed thousands upon thousands of interstate and overseas visitors to escape to the Gold Coast from their colder home climates for an unmatched sports holiday experience.

“While we will miss our international runners this year, by staging a successful event in July the Gold Coast will showcase to the world we are again open for major events business,” he said.

Village Roadshow Theme Parks General Manager of Marketing Renee Souter backed today’s announcement.

“Village Roadshow Theme Parks is proud to support this iconic event as naming rights sponsor,” Ms Souter said.

“The event showcases the Gold Coast like no other and with the numbers of visitors this event attracts each year, I know just how important the marathon and other major events are to the Gold Coast’s tourism economy.

“When the runners and their families come to the Gold Coast they stay in our hotels, eat in our restaurants, shop in our shopping centres, and of course visit our theme parks.

“The team at Village Roadshow Theme Parks are right behind the marathon weekend and I call on other Gold Coast businesses and our community to get behind this time-honoured and iconic event,” she said.

Events Management Queensland CEO Cameron Hart acknowledged the challenges of planning events under COVID-safe health regulations.

“We have seen other smaller events adapting to the ‘new normal’ of event delivery with tight health regulations, social distancing and other responsible management measures,” Mr Hart said.

“Subsequently we have developed extensive plans to balance all the health regulations while providing a world class running experience on course,” he said.

Mr Hart said several crowd management initiatives will be implemented this year.

“This year we have moved the ASICS Half Marathon from the Sunday to the Saturday to spread our crowd more evenly and we’ve cancelled the usual pre-race check-in centre and expo in favour of mailing out race kits.

“We have also implemented wave race starts, and we’ll be providing personal protection equipment to the runners.

“Our priority this year is to deliver a positive running experience for our recreational and elite runners upon which we will rebuild a solid foundation to grow the event beyond pre- COVID levels in the future,” he said.