THE threat hanging over one of the region's biggest sporting events has been lifted and it will now go ahead after all.

A week after the closing date for entries for the annual Lyke Wake Race across the North York shire Moors, organisers say the moors challenge is definitely on.

There had been major concerns about the lack of interest being shown in the event by potential competitors this year.

At the end of May only six people had entered and because of the cost of staging the 42-mile race, its cancellation had been looking increasingly likely.

It would have been only the second time in the race's 39-year history it had been cancelled, the first being in 2001 when foot-and-mouth hit the countryside and major restrictions were in place.

Now more than 30 applications have been received, with competitors coming from as far afield as Brighton, Lowestoft, Leeds and Newcastle.

Of those, eight are veterans aged over 55. The oldest competitor is Lyke Wake regular Brian Golding a 75-year-old from Osmotherley. Competitors are supported by 60 or more communications people, caterers and marshals, based at nine check-points .

The event is open to walkers, harriers and fell runners who are capable of completing the marathon-and-a-half of tough moorland terrain in less than twelve hours. The record, set ten years ago, is four hours and 43 minutes.

The race will take place on Saturday, July 12.

Race director Paul Sherwood said: "We just don't know why we had so few entries at first, but the race costs us about £700 to stage, and because of the cancellation in 2001, we had very little reserve."

The race was launched nine years after the equally famous Lyke Wake Walk was established.

It quickly became one of the most popular routes attracting up to 15,000 people a year. Numbers have fallen in recent years to under 3,000 people.