A TOTAL of 143 runners braved the cold to take part in the first ever Riverfront Parkrun in Newport over the weekend.

Runners travelled from as far afield as York, Wycombe and London to take part in the second attempt at the events launch, after last week’s was cancelled due to icy conditions.

Described as an ‘urban’ Parkrun, sun greeted joggers on the city’s second Parkrun route - the other being at Tredegar House - which started at 9am on Saturday with at least 12 people taking part in a Parkrun event for the first time.

Also taking part in the 5k jaunt was Newport East MP John Griffiths.

Parkrun Wales co-ordinator Chris Davies, said: “We were worried about having too many people at the event and causing strain on the marshals who were obviously doing the event for the first time, so the number was about right and it ran exceedingly well.

“We had a few of the ‘inaugurals’, who go around the country for first-ever Parkrun events turn-up but not as many as we thought due the cancellation last week.”

Volunteers were on the course a couple of hours before the event begun to do safety checks.

Starting by the Riverfront Arts Theatre,the route goes along a trail by the river past the iconic Newport City Footbridge and beneath the George Street Bridge.

From there it continues tracking the river's path, under the Southern Distributor Road Bridge to the sailing ship sculptures and returns along the same route, with the finish line at The Wave sculpture.

Sponsored by Newport Live the event has taken 18 months to come to fruition.

The organisers hope the will become a staple of the city and an event for everyone to feel comfortable taking part in.

Event co-director, Katrija Dew, said: “We were worried as it was quite frosty again and with it being a single out-and-back route rather than laps it took longer to check, but it was a beautiful morning.

“It’s accessibility is great, people can just walk to it and we have an amazing team.”