Mass Kew Gardens 10k event headlines with social distancing success
Mass running is officially back! The largest social distancing running event in the UK happened over the weekend. 3,500 runners got back to some sort of normality by running in the socially distanced Kew Gardens 10k, all inside the Royal Botanic Gardens in London. It also had a top runbritain ranking 10k time for 2020 junior men!
Runners were spread out over different allocated arrival times, holding zones, and then started 4 at a time in a successful first running event of this size in the country since the outbreak of COVID-19.
Race Director, Tom Bedford said “With many mass participation sporting events cancelled since February, there were a lot of eyes on us as many people didn’t believe that we could put on a socially distanced running event, but I am pleased to say it was a success and that all of the hard work from our team during lockdown paid off. A lot of the feedback we have received so far is that people felt safe and socially distanced throughout the event and I would like to thank our runners for cooperating under our strict COVID-19 rules whilst still having fun. One of our motives was to provide a physical platform for charity fundraising and to help build fitness, both physical and mental well-being. We are proud to be the only running event to fundraise for our incredible charities during this difficult period.
I thank the runners but I would also like to thank all of the staff, amazing volunteers and Kew Gardens for coming together to get this event over the start line and I hope it paves the way for other safe running events and parkruns to return as soon as possible.”
Former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid, raised an outstanding £12,500 for Charity, whilst running a fantastic time of 53 minutes and 44 seconds. However, he was almost 20 minutes behind the young under 20 winner, Seyfu Jamaal (handicap -5.1) who was the fastest time of the weekend. His impressive time of 30:14 broke London Heathside AC’s 16 year old club record. It also topped the runbritain under 20 rankings too - Congratulations Sayfu!
The ‘Queen of Richmond’s’ title went to British international, Tracy Barlow (handicap -0.3), who was the fastest woman over the weekend with 34:54.
Results below.