Salzburg Marathon on May 17 has been cancelled

Today is the time to be able to communicate the official decision to cancel the 2020 Running Festival in the City of Mozart. We are convinced that it is the right decision, even if it hits the running scene and all runners who are looking forward to the Salzburg Running Festival and who have already shown great training commitments and made financial investments hard. Below is the message from the organizers Ruth & Johannes Langer:

Dear running friends, dear running friends!

The inevitable can no longer be postponed. In coordination with the city and state of Salzburg, we have to cancel the Salzburg Marathon 2020. Of course we understand that this is a big disappointment for many. You can maybe imagine how it feels for us.

The 17th edition will thus take place as part of the running festival in the city of Mozart from 14th to 16th. May 2021. As organizers of the Salzburg Marathon, Salzburg Women's Run and the other competitions, we had to cancel the Salzburg Marathon scheduled for May 17, 2020 after a comprehensive assessment of all currently known circumstances. Unfortunately, it cannot be postponed to autumn.

We have closely followed and discussed the development of the spread of the corona virus and the measures taken by politicians and authorities in the past few days. Since the pandemic is spreading at a rapid pace and it is not foreseeable when the situation will ease, we have made the decision to cancel the Salzburg Marathon with a heavy heart.

The cancellation is due to our responsibility towards society and the health of our participants, visitors and helpers. As organizers, we are aware of our obligation and our claim to health and prevention. Such a decision could only be made after weighing up all the arguments.

A postponement of the event by a few months had to be rejected. Framework conditions are needed that are not always available in a city like Salzburg. In addition, the schedule for the big races in autumn is already very tight. The Salzburg Marathon wants to act in solidarity and not take participants away from the other runs. This is also in the interest of the runners, who then do not have to decide between several offers on one weekend.

The traditional one Jedermannlauf, in which the Austrian State Championships in the half marathon are also integrated this year, we want to hold it on October 4th, 2020 as planned. We hope that this Salzburg city run can take place and are already inviting all runners to take part as a sign of solidarity.

We thank you for your patience and understanding as we try to navigate this situation. Our business operations have been switched to working from home until further notice. Accordingly, we ask for your indulgence that we can only do the most urgent tasks at the moment. We will send a newsletter to all those who have registered with a compensation offer. We ask all those who took out insurance when registering to contact the insurance company via the link in their registration confirmation (it also applies if the event is cancelled!).

Please give us time to sort everything out.
Take care of yourselves and your loved ones - stay healthy!
See you soon with kind regards
Ruth & John Langer