HARLOW Junior parkrun celebrated their seventh birthday in style on Sunday morning.

Fifty junior athletes, with their families, ran, jogged, hopped, skipped and walked their way around the 2km course in the showground field.

Taking part today were four children, Taylor, Felix, Henry and Tegan who also took part in the first event seven years ago.

They have all grown considerably since 2016 and were warmly welcomed back by the volunteers, some of whom also were present at the first event.

Since 2016 there have been 285 events. Over 1700 children have taken part, between them they have completed over 13,300 runs.

Over 360 people have volunteered and attended in all weathers to ensure the event can go ahead safely.

The ethos of junior parkrun is the same now as it was event one.

All children aged between 4 and 14 are welcome. While the average finish time is around 13 minutes we have children finishing much quicker and some taking a little longer.

The last finisher is always cheered and supported just as much as the first finisher!

A collection was arranged for local charity Streets2Home as part of the celebrations and a huge stash of tinned foods, toiletries and clothes were donated.

It will be delivered to Streets2Home this week.

Event Director, Catherine Penketh said: “I would like to thank all the families that have taken part over the years.

“I am delighted that families were turning up for the first time today while we also welcomed regular participants who are well and truly part of the Harlow junior parkrun community”.

Harlow junior parkrun is a free, weekly, timed 2km walk or run that takes place every Sunday morning at 9am in the Showground Field in Harlow Town Park.

Children need to register online before their first event.

By registering they will receive a barcode which they need to bring each week, digitally or by printing out, so their run is recorded.

All the information can be found at their website https://www.parkrun.org.uk/harlow-juniors/.