Wagga athlete Jared Kahlefeldt will look to put his six months worth of training towards another event after being left 'frustrated' by the cancellation of the Tokyo Marathon.
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Wagga's Kahlefeldt brothers, Brad, Jared and Justin, were set to tick of the Tokyo Marathon off their bucket list on Sunday week.
But their plans were thrown into disarray on Monday night when organisers cancelled the main part of this year's event due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The trio were due to fly out to Japan next week but are now weighing up their options after the cancellation of the mass participation part of the race.
"It's definitely frustrating," Kahlefeldt said.
"We've put in the best part of six months of hard training and allowed for a lot of time training around our family and working life.
"It's frustrating but I also understand why it's come to this."
Some 38,000 athletes were set to meet the starter in Tokyo on March 1.
With six months of training under the belt, Kahlefeldt will look to see if there are any other suitable marathons coming up so his work is not wasted.
"Wangaratta is definitely an option this weekend," he said.
"I'm looking at the options and will try to find an event soon. There is also an event in Canberra in late April or early May."
Kahlefeldt, the owner and manager of Wagga's Workout Gym, has not given up on his Tokyo Marathon dream.
While there is yet to be any further detail from event organisers, he hopes that his entry could possibly be carried over to next year's Marathon.
"It is really hard to get into," he said.
"Spud and I went into a ballot and were lucky enough to pick up a spot. Brad qualified in the sub elite by running a certain time.
"We've organised it through a travel company so we'll have to find out whether we can transfer flights but I'm hoping to still go back next year.
"But with all the training we've done, I definitely still want to try and find something soon."
Tokyo Marathon Foundation released a statement on Monday night explaining that now a case of coronavirus had been confirmed within Tokyo, they could not continue to launch the event on the scale they had originally planned.
The event will proceed for marathon and wheelchair elite entries only.
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