Kingston Parkrun says that a participant who pushed a cyclist off her bike on a towpath alongside the River Thames at the weekend will no be welcome at future events..
Founded in southwest London in 2004, the 5-kilometre timed events are now held on Saturday mornings in around two dozen countries worldwide, with more than 600 locations in the UK alone.
In a post on its Facebook page on Saturday, Kingston Parkrun said that “the runner who chose to push a cyclist off her bike today is not welcome” at the event.
In a reply on the thread, the cyclist said: “Thanks for your concern, I am ok, but at the time was really upset and in shock that this happened. I might have been shoved but it certainly felt like I was punched in the arm and with enough force to stop me cycling. It was painful and I was in tears. No one stopped to check I was ok and the person who hit me certainly didn't even though I shouted after them. Thank you to the race director for taking time to listen to me and to follow this up. I regularly use the towpath and usually avoid using it on Saturday mornings but forgot today and by the time I'd met the runners couldn't change to a different route. But this shouldn't have resulted in someone physically assaulting me.
In reply, Kingston Parkrun said: “I am so sorry that this happened to you. It is not acceptable for any runner to assault anyone and doing it during parkrun is against the ethos of parkrun. I hope someone can step forward and identify who it was.”
The perpetrator does not appear to have been identified as yet but another post on the thread highlighted a similar issue elsewhere on the river (although not on a Parkrun event): “It's sad to hear but as a cyclist who has also been shoved into brambles on the tow path by a runner (Walton part and another event not Parkrun) it is far more common than just this.
"There are more and more running events along the river path and it really does become too much on the weekends. Parkrun isn't the problem at all. Maybe the path needs to be closed off for some of the other events that aren't as well stewarded," the poster added.
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