Nahoon Point parkrun up and running again
After more than three years since the last Nahoon Point parkrun, the popular running event was re-launched successfully on Saturday and saw over 550 runners, joggers and walkers enjoy a new route.
The 5km Saturday runs previously meandered through the Nahoon Point Nature Reserve, starting at Footprints.
The new route sees runners make their way along Nahoon beach towards the Nahoon Corner car park.
It continues up the hill and onto the jeep-track to a tarred road, towards the historical lookout point where it loops back the same way towards the beach and finally a narrow pathway near the Life Saver’s Shack before ending off at the Nahoon Mouth Bowling Club on Harewood Drive.
According to parkrun regional director Bob Norris, part of the land where the new route is run, belongs to the Nahoon Mouth Bowling Club, which has granted permission for the parkrun to take place and finish off on the club’s grounds each week.
“There are a few areas of commonality with the previous route, but it is completely different. It is, in part, still run on public land such as the beach, but the bowling club are essentially our new landlords.”
Nahoon Mouth Bowling Club president Robbie Muzzel said; “I think the parkrun is fantastic and it’s wonderful to have people around the club.”
The original event started in August 2012 and was the fourth parkrun event to start up in South Africa.It was officially cancelled three years later, in October 2015 after disputes with Buffalo City Metro.Upon cancellation of the event in 2015, the Daily Dispatch reported that BCM was demanding an event fee for each of the Saturday 5km events, but Norris said there were various reasons given by BCM.According to BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya, “the termination of the Nahoon Point parkrun was done because of environmental legislation.”Ngwenya said that BCM was not aware of the event’s re-launch and no permission had been given by the municipality for it to take place.On the contrary, Buffalo City Tourism posted news and encouragement of the event’s relaunch on Facebook.The post on May 1 reads: “Good news, parkrun fans. The popular Nahoon Point parkrun is set to reopen this Saturday.”Nahoon Point parkrun event director John Lee Sun said that prior to the relaunch, organisers obtained legal and environmental advice to ensure that they were operating within the law.“We’ve got legal advice and we would not have gone through with the relaunch if there were any problems.“We’re not doing this for ourselves, we’re doing it for the community,” said Lee Sun.According to Norris, there are over 28,000 people registered with parkrun in the Buffalo City area, and while parkruns around the city were launched after the Nahoon Point parkrun was cancelled, it remained one of the most popular.Others within the Buffalo City area include the Sunrise on Sea, Imonti, Kidd’s Beach, Python Park and King William’s Town parkruns...
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