Fans of Bushy parkrun will be disappointed to hear that the hoped-for early return of the 5k race will not be going ahead, due to a lack of support from landowners.

Parkrun UK announced this morning that the event's new provisional start date is now Saturday 26 June, and a final decision on this will be made on Friday 11 June.

While more than 250 parkruns in England obtained permission from landowners to re-start on June 5, this fell far short of the number needed for a safe re-opening of the event across the UK.

In a statement this morning parkrun Global CEO Nick Pearson said: "We will continue to work hard with landowners over the coming weeks to secure the permissions needed to return at the end of June.

"We are incredibly grateful to all of the landowners who have granted events permission to return so far, and for the groundswell of support for parkrun over recent days.

"Although it is disappointing not to be able to return on 5 June, we are still optimistic that we can return parkrun events to nearly 600 communities across England very soon.

"We will do everything we can to ensure events restart on 26 June."

Earlier this week the Royal Parks announced it would not allow the 5k runs to go ahead in Bushy and Richmond Parks before June 21 at the earliest due to the popularity of the routes.

A spokesperson for the Parks said at the time: "We are allowing a limited number of running clubs to undertake test events in the parks before we open up to all small events on June 21.

"The test events must have Covid-19 mitigation measures in place, which includes having under 250 participants and a staggered start.

"In Richmond and Bushy Parks, parkrun attracts well in excess of 250 participants so we are unable to accommodate these events and we would ask the organisers and participants to continue to wait patiently for the situation to change after June 21 at the earliest."

The delay comes despite widespread support for a UK-wide return of the 5ks, with high-profile figures including London Mayor Sadiq Khan urging landowners to reconsider.

Though there was permission for some 5ks to re-start early, parkrun organisers take the view that all of its events need to start on the same date to prevent races becoming overwhelmed with extra runners.

Parkrun founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt OBE revealed in a blogpost last month his worries about the event's future.

He wrote: "Ever since the first lockdown began, I have been worried about whether or not parkrun would survive.

"It is no exaggeration to say that the next few days and weeks will be critical for the entire parkrun movement.

"It has been humbling to hear parkrun referred to as 'one of the greatest public health initiatives in the history of the United Kingdom' in the corridors of Public Health and elsewhere.

"But now is not the time for platitudes or empty gestures. We must all do everything we can to ensure that parkrun is here to be enjoyed for generations to come.

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