Provisional date is set for Welsh Parkrun returns – news from Global Parkrun chief

Parkruns in Wales could be set to return from July 10!

Here is a message from Tom Williams, chief operating officer for Parkrun Global………..

On the weekend of June 4-6 we saw 700 events take place across seven countries, with more than 62,000 participants enjoying the magic of free, community-led, outdoor, social physical activity opportunities.

It is so encouraging to see these events welcomed back by local communities, and to see our COVID-19 Framework in action and working well.

This COVID-specific framework sits alongside individual local risk assessments and was developed last year to document the necessary changes and mitigations volunteers at a local level need to be aware of and follow when delivering Parkrun events whilst Coronavirus is still in circulation.

Reassuringly, more than 14,000 events at over 800 locations have now been delivered in accordance with this framework, with over 250,000 different people walking, jogging, running and volunteering more than 1.5 million times.

We support track and trace in every region we operate in, and have not yet received notification of a single instance of COVID-19 transmission connected to any parkrun event.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank every parkrunner who has participated at any one of these 14,000 events, for their patience and support, and for their belief in the parkrun movement.

And in particular we would like to celebrate the incredible volunteers at every event who are making sure Parkrun is safe, welcoming and enjoyable for everyone in their local community.

As we look ahead there are a number of planned reopenings and although subject to possible changes to guidance, we expect to be able to restart in the following countries as follows:

12 June – Poland
19 June – Denmark
20 June – Scotland (junior events begin to return)
26 June – England and Northern Ireland (tbc)
3 July – France, Scotland (tbc)
10 July – Wales (tbc)
7 August – Sweden

In some cases, we are still awaiting confirmation to officially publish a restart date. As and when this is possible, we will provide further information in this weekly update, as well as across the relevant communication channels for each country.

Meanwhile, positive conversations continue with landowners across England, and, at the time of writing, 76% of events have permission in place to restart. We will make an announcement on Friday this week on UK channels, confirming whether we have enough permissions in place to target a restart on 26 June as planned.

Thanks so much for your continued support.

Tom Williams
Chief Operating Officer
Parkrun Global