Next year’s Appleby Bermuda Half Marathon Derby will be held in honour of late race director and committee member Trevor Cann.

Gina Tucker, the race committee president, made the announcement yesterday at Cann’s funeral held at St James Church in Somerset.

“As much as Trevor has committed to helping this race to be what it has become, I think it is only fitting we pay tribute to him in this way,” she said. “It would be appropriate that we celebrate and recognise his contributions on that momentous occasion next year.”

The late Cann is the son of race co-founder Berwyn Cann.

His younger sibling, Owen, also serves on the race committee along with Debra Saltus and Tucker.

“Trevor served as race director for many, many years,” Tucker said. “He was the one who was up very early in the morning in the dark making sure that the mile markers were out in perfect place, and so that will definitely be a task that we would have to sort out for next year.

“That was his duty and he did it religiously every single year for way longer then I can remember. He was doing it when our fathers were on the race committee.

“We are going to have to find somebody to replace Trevor, but it won’t be me. That job is too early in the morning for me.”

Cann, father of two, passed away at King Edward Memorial Hospital on December 5 at the age of 57 after taking ill at his home in Somerset.

Among the high-profile former athletes attending Cann’s funeral was distance runner Mike Watson who won four Bermuda Half Marathon titles between 1984 and 1991.

Next year will see the 13.1 mile race start in St George’s for the first time in decades and the route alternate annually thereafter between the existing course, which starts in Somerset and ends at Bernard’s Park.

“Trevor was very excited about the race coming out of the east next year, probably more than all of us,” Tucker said. “That was a big thing to him.”

The alternate routes means there will now be two sets of records.

Husband and wife duo Chris and Ashley Estwanik hold the men and women’s race records on the existing course.

Chris set the men’s record in 2008 when he stormed to victory in 1:08.25 while wife Ashley established the women’s record of 1:21.24 on the way to victory in this year’s race.