Parkrun U-turn

Plans to resume weekly mass participation Parkrun events in October, announced little over two weeks ago, have been dropped due to stricter coronavirus rules in the UK. Parkruns were suspended in March because of the pandemic.

The Parkrun movement was founded in London in 2002 and is now in 22 countries. There are 729 Parkruns staged in the UK every week, which are free and run by volunteers.

At the time of the previous announcement CEO Nick Pearson said that, based on specially commissioned scientific studies there is “little or nominal risk of Covid-19 transmission at outdoor physical activity events such as Parkrun”. Additionally, Parkrun is exempt from the government rules on social distancing because of its status as an organised outdoor sporting activity.

Even so, Pearson said that the reason for dropping the plans to re-start Parkruns was because it “would be insensitive”.