PONTYPOOL parkrun celebrated a proud occasion when it enjoyed a surprise visit from parkrun founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt.

Mr Sinton-Hewitt organised the first ever parkrun in Bushy Park in London, way back 2004.

Then, there was just 13 runners, 3 volunteers, a stopwatch, some washers from the local hardware store and a piece of paper.

But from there the parkrun concept has become global.

Now, many thousands of runners are computer processed, websites updated and emails sent each week.

The parkrun community - not least in Pontypool - is growing all the time – but it’s all still based on the simple, basic principles formed from the start: weekly, free, 5km, for everyone, forever & volunteer-led.

Mr Sinton-Hewitt, who was awarded an MBE in the new year, took part in the Pontypool route and chatted with the local runners. Before the start he presented junior parkrunner Harri Rhodes with a half marathon band, for successfully completing 11 junior runs. Afterwards he joined the runners and volunteers for coffee and chat.

Event director Dimitri Vorres said his visit and encouraging words were a great endorsement for the local set-up.

"We were elated that not only did he chose to come to Pontypool parkrun but really enjoyed the course and meeting our park runners and volunteers," Mr Vorres added. "He's now run three parkruns in Wales and said he wants to come back to Pontypool and next time bring his wife too. The team at Pontypool work hard every week to provide an enjoyable free run for all abilities and it is great to have Paul's endorsement."

Pontypool parkrun started on 23 November 2013, and since then 1,635 different runners, including participants from 95 athletics clubs, have completed 7,432 runs covering a total distance of 37,160 km. There have been 2,147 new personal bests.