With registrations now open, Weipa Running Festival organisers are expecting competitors from all over Australia – like Melbourne marathoner Dimitrios Tsironis, who won over the local crowd in 2024 – to converge on western Cape York for this year’s event on 20 July. Photo: Cape York Weekly.
They say records are meant to be broken, and that’s exactly the adage the Weipa Running Festival (WRF) committee is aiming to adopt on and off the course for the 2025 edition of the event.
A record field of 332 competitors donned their race bibs in 2024, and with five individual events and three team events on offer this year, organisers are quietly confident the number may be smashed when the starter’s pistol fires on 20 July.
The team events are set to be popular with participants, who have the option to share the workload on the course by nominating two or four runners for the Marathon Relay or two runners for the Half Marathon Relay.
The Mission Team Event will return in 2025, with teams required to nominate one runner in each of the five solo race distances on the program.
WRF president Rose Robins said registrations had already surpassed the century milestone, adding she expected the 5-kilometre event to be the most popular due to Rio Tinto offering to cover nomination costs for competitors.
“We’ve cracked 100 already, which is fantastic,” she said.
“The 5km and half marathon are always the most popular, and both are looking very healthy again; we expect the 5km to be large field due to the generosity of Rio Tinto with their free entry.”
Committee members rallied support for the event at the Weipa Easter Markets and Community Showcase last month, and Ms Robins said it provided an opportunity to promote the event, as well as provide reassurances to a number of potential first-time competitors.
“There were lots of people really wanting reassurance that they would be able to enter the distance they were eyeing off, and lots of questions around the best training plans, group runs and course sections,” she said.
“The team events were also a hot topic, which is great – it really brings a fun and slightly competitive angle to the event also.”
To register and do your part in the push for a WRF nomination record in July, visit the event website.
