The Bermuda National Athletics Association has confirmed that The Mile Reloaded has been postponed partly because of new Covid-19 guidelines implemented by the Government.

After the recent spike in coronavirus cases on island, David Burt, the Premier, announced a number of preventive measures, including cutting the number of people allowed to gather together to 20 people, unless a special exemption was granted.

In a statement the BNAA confirmed that a decision had already been made to delay the event ― which was scheduled to take place on Friday at the National Sports Centre ― prior to the new guidelines.

“The BNAA would like to advise that "The Mile Reloaded" will be postponed due to the new Covid guidelines implemented by the Government, specifically the number of persons who can gather together being 20 persons,” the statement read.

“We had already made the decision last week that we would postpone because some of our students would have been quarantined and not able to participate in the trials before the Government’s decision.

“Please note the event is not cancelled but when Bermuda is in a better position we will host the trials and the finals will then be held one or two weeks later.”

The event was introduced as a replacement to the annual Front Street Mile which was cancelled as a result of next year’s Bermuda Triangle Challenge falling foul of the pandemic.

In the aim of salvaging at least one of the signature events of the sporting calender the BNAA rebranded the traditional Front Street Mile as The Mile Reloaded.

Each race category is due to remain the same with Primary School, Middle School, High School, Open, Masters and Senior Masters, while there is to be no Elite category because of the entirely local nature of the event.

The top 20 finishers in each category will eventually go on to to compete in the finals which were originally scheduled to take place on January 16 at an undisclosed location.