All change as popular City of Salford 10k race moves to Wigan beauty spot

This year's race has been moved to Pennington Flash

Around 2,000 people usually take part in the City of Salford 10k each September, but this year organisers are holding the event at Pennington Flash instead.

They hope as many runners as possible will sign up for the run, which takes place on Sunday, September 5.

Graham Jackson, race director from the Running Bee Foundation, said: “This has been moved from Media City. It used to be the City of Salford 10k, but with the pandemic and problems that arose from that, we had to look for another location. We managed to secure Pennington Flash.

“The race starts and finishes at Leigh Harriers’ athletic track at Leigh Sports Village, You go out and go underneath the road and that takes you into Pennington Flash Country Park. It’s a beautiful place and a lovely location. It will take you on a circuit around Pennington Flash and you will come back to Leigh Sports Village.”

The Running Bee Foundation supports a range of good causes and proceeds from the event will be donated to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

Participants can also choose to collect sponsorship for any charity close to their heart.

Organisers hope it will be a chance for runners to return to the start line, some for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Jackson said: “Due to the pandemic, a lot of races have moved to the end of the year. We came back in July with our first event, which was a massive success - the Tour of Tameside, where we run four races in four days. People were excited about being able to do events.

“There were some people who were still nervous and so they just automatically got transferred to next year, but the majority of people want to do events and we have worked long and hard with guidance from the Government and UK Athletics and local authorities to be able to put this on safely.

“We will have some hand sanitisers there and we will send out a message to all the runners prior to the event, to say if you have tested positive recently or been in contact with somebody who has tested positive, then please do not attend and we would transfer them to next year. We are doing that because we have a duty of care to the runners, each other, spectators and volunteers.”

Mr Jackson described Pennington Flash as a “stunning location” and said the 10k race could become an annual event there.

Participants will all receive a medal and a T-shirt on completing the distance, while chip timing will be used for the results.

Entry costs £23 (£21 for affiliated runners), available at www.runningbeefoundation.co.uk. A £5 discount is available by using the code wiganpost.

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