ORGANISERS of the toughest race in the south are planning to launch a campaign to attract more runners ahead of next year’s event on Butser Hill.

The annual Butser Challenge – which takes the senior race competitors up and down one of the highest slopes in Hampshire and the South Downs National Park three times – is facing competition from other events in attracting people to enter the race.

While the number of junior runners participating in this year’s event increased, 145 people took part in the senior race – a marked reduction from the kind of numbers who used to take part in previous years.

Race director Alan Shons said: “I?think we could market the event a lot better.

“I?think we will get more leaflets out to all the schools next year to boost the junior entries again.

“For the adult race we now have a lot of competition from the likes of the Tough Mudder and colour run events – these are proving to be very popular.

“We have a lot of volunteers who help us set up the event and make sure it runs well but what we could really do with is someone with marketing skills who could really help us to push next year’s and future events.”

Anyone who is willing to help the organisers with marketing should contact Alan on 07976 426247.

This year’s Butser Challenge went “very well,” according to Alan, with a total of 450 runners taking part in Sunday’s six races.

Classed as a grade B fell running course, there isn’t much perfect about trying to climb and descend a slope which rises to a height of 889ft. However, the weather conditions could be described as that for this tough contest – it was a cool day but there was no wind or rain.

The event was again supported by Churcher’s College, brewers Fuller and Petersfield solicitors MacDonald Oates.

This year’s chosen charity was FitzRoy, which is based in Hylton Road in Petersfield, and organisers hope this year’s Butser Challenge will raise in the region of £4,000.