THE organisers of Bathurst parkrun have reached out to Member for Bathurst Paul Toole for support to help get the event back up and running.
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Like many events, the weekly parkrun had to be cancelled around Australia due to COVID-19.
Now that cases are in low numbers, most Australian states and territories are allowing parkrun to resume, but not in NSW and Victoria.
Jennifer Arnold and Stephen Jackson, who organise the local parkrun, hope that Mr Toole can be an advocate for them.
Their letter to him was responded to "favourably".
Mr Jackson said the push to bring back parkrun was not so much about running, but about restoring the sense of community that comes from the weekly event.
Regular participants have missed being able to come together each week.
"It's certainly been a difficult time, not just for running, but for the community we had there," Mr Jackson said.
"We had the Panorama Punish a couple of weeks ago and all the parkrunners came out of the woodwork and the obvious community that's there is what's missing, and many were feeling the social distancing instead of physical distancing."
The Bathurst parkrun usually attracts around 300 participants each week, which is just over half of the number of people that attended the Panorama Punish last month.
Mr Jackson said the parkrun Australia team had devised its own protocols to ensure events were able to be held safely.
He and Ms Arnold experienced that for themselves recently and can assure that they work well.
"Two weeks ago, Jen and I went down to Canberra for their return and the protocols that parkrun have put in place for COVID prevention are significant, in that there's physical distancing, hand-wash arrangements, there's changes to the start and finish so people aren't congregating," Mr Jackson said.
"It can be done and it is being done in other places without any impact. Australia is uniquely positioned with virtually no cases now to return to [parkrun] as soon as we possibly can."
He said he was very confident the event could be held safely in Bathurst.
What is holding up parkrun's return in NSW, Mr Jackson said, is that three events in Sydney regularly attract over 500 people.
The NSW Government's COVID rules permit no more than 500 participants in a community sport activity.
Mr Jackson hopes parkrun's case can be dealt with soon and believes it is possible to have events resume in Bathurst before Christmas this year.