SALISBURY’S 54231 event has been saved - more than a month after the organiser’s announced it had been cancelled.

Working in partnership with Ludo Macauley, the event will return “like a phoenix from the flames” for its 25th edition, after being saved by Immortal Sport.

In a post on Facebook on February 10, organisers said: “2020 will be a transition year and the event format will remain unchanged.

“We will continue to support the local charities and volunteer groups who have previously benefitted from the event as well as partnering with the Fire Fighters Charity who will be the charity partners for 2020 and beyond.”

Praised by some as “one of the highlights” of the local running calendar, founding race director Ludo Macaulay originally confirmed in January that the event had been cancelled, despite last August’s 24th instalment being its “most successful event to date”.

The decision was made after failing to recruit replacements for long-standing key staff, or find an organisation to take over the running of the trail races and challenge walks.

The 54321 walk and trail run is an event suited to all the family, with a choice of distance from 5k to the more demanding 42k Marathon, or even a popular 50k Ultra Marathon.

The routes are all on footpaths, bridleways and quiet country roads in the Salisbury area and take you past a variety of sites of historical and scientific interest and through country estates not usually open to the public.

The routes take in five rivers, four hills (Old Sarum, King Manor, Clearbury Hill Fort and Salisbury Racecourse), three country estates (Clarendon, Longford and Wilton), two castles (Old Sarum and Longford) and Salisbury Cathedral.

All routes are circular, starting and finishing at Salisbury Fire Station.

For more information and to enter one of the challenges, visit bit.ly/2VdeFML