From Saturday, Covid laws in Wales have been relaxed, enabling up to 500 people to congregate for outdoor gatherings. Football teams and the parkrun running charity have praised the regulation adjustment.
The benefits of parkrun, according to Karl Johnson of Pontypridd parkrun, are both physical and mental, and “to have the event back up and running is a tremendous comfort to many.”
The Welsh government stated that all restrictions would be lifted by February 10th.
“It was lovely to see our parkrun family back together today after a dismal two-week break,” Mr Johnson said following Saturday’s event.
“Our wonderful band of volunteers deserves credit for committing to our event on such short notice; 30 volunteers coming together in under 16 hours is fairly outstanding.”
“It’s been sad that we’ve had to cancel the last two weeks; I know that some racers have gone over the border to other races in the meanwhile.” We’re ready and eager to go now that we have the opportunity.”
Football clubs may now welcome additional fans, thanks to parkrun. In their first match of the year in the Ardal South West League, Ynyshir Albions Football Club will meet Ton Pentre AFC at The Oval, Ynyshir, Rhondda Cynon Taf.
“We’re incredibly thrilled,” said Cei Mason, the club’s treasurer. Match day revenue is critical to our ability to manage the club.
“I’m sure many other clubs in Wales will feel the same way and would appreciate this news as the expense of maintaining a grassroots club continues to climb,” he added.
Despite the changes, he stated that they may not be able to reach the maximum capacity of 500 fans.
“We were unable to announce the expanded capacity to all of our followers because the news arrived late. Mr Mason stated, “We’d like to get back up to those kinds of levels in the coming weeks.”
The club will need to make certain alterations ahead of the game to ensure that safety requirements such as social distancing are observed.
“We have chosen to change into our equipment outside the ground to give the away team the entire run of the building to abide to social distance restrictions,” Mr Mason said.
“It’s not ideal, but we’ll do our best to make it work so the game can continue on.”
