KNYSNA NEWS - The parkruns in Knysna and Harkerville are officially up and running again (pun very much intended), after more than a year and a half of no action.
The last time a full national cohort of parkruns was held was on 14 March 2020.
Bruce Fordyce, president of parkrun South Africa, announced the official cancellation of all parkruns in Southern Africa on 18 March 2020, a week before the President declared a National State of Disaster.
While there were hopes that the events could resume somewhere during the year, nobody anticipated how long it would be before the iconic Saturday runs would return to our neck of the woods.
Parkruns have been systematically reintroduced around the country while still under lockdown, largely due to the small number of people that take part in the events. There were severe restrictions on the number of people allowed to attend an event at any one time.
Nikki Walter was the first lady at the Knysna parkrun. Photo: Blake Linder
This meant that by the time Ramaphosa announced on 30 September that the country would move back to lockdown level 1, 30 parkrun events were on the go around the country.
The president's announcement meant that the remaining 100 parkrun events in SA could also get going.
"Having considered our likely attendances going forward, and in the context of the attendances at reopened events around the world, we are pleased to confirm that the remaining 100 events can start to return from 30 October," Fordyce said in a statement in mid-October.
And so, on Saturday 30 October, local runners, walkers, joggers and volunteers takkied up to take part in a parkrun once again. The runs got underway at 08:00 as per tradition, and Knysna saw a wonderful 152 participants take part while Harkerville had 78 runners.
Marlon Mortlock, Chumani Tabata and Promise Bajila were the first three to cross the finish line in Harkerville while Wihan Swanepoel, Rick Matter and Herman Kitshoff were the first three to finish in Knysna.
Wihan Swanepoel was the first runner home in Knysna.
Parkrunners set off at the start of the Knysna parkrun.
Herman Kitshoff was the third runner across the line in Knysna.
Rick Matter finished second at the Knysna parkrun.
Photos: Blake Linder
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