SMILING faces old and new turned out in force in the Meedies on Saturday as parkrun returned in style from its COVID-19 hiatus.

The popular weekly event, which takes place in Lochore Meadows Country Park, had been unable to take place since restrictions to tackle the spread of the virus were introduced in March last year and its comeback proved to be a major hit with those taking part.

Parkruns are free, community-orientated timed 5Ks and bring runners, joggers and walkers together on Saturday mornings across the world, giving people of all ages and abilities the opportunity to get involved.

Lochore's event was first held in 2018 and is one of four that are held each week at 9.30am across Fife, with others taking place in Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy and St Andrews.

Saturday's turnout of 179 was a significant increase on numbers prior to the event being stopped, which included eight first-time parkrunners, and 17 personal best times being recorded.

Andrew Aird, ambassador for parkrun in Fife, was running director at Lochore, and commented: "We're delighted with the way it went; it was really smooth and was absolutely great to be back. Everyone was loving it!

"Lochore had 179, which is well up in terms of their normal attendance.

"It's not about numbers, but I think that just shows how many people were delighted to be there.

"Everybody was just delighted to have it back, get along and be able to see their pals that they've not seen."

Small changes have been made to parkrun events across the country, such as ensuring starting and finishing points are in wider spaces to help keep participants as safe as possible, and volunteers recording times on a mobile phone app instead of using stopwatches and barcode scanners.

Andrew, who revealed there were 995 runners, and 96 volunteers, who took part across the four Kingdom events, said feedback from participants had been positive, adding: "All the changes they made, everybody was fine with it, and absolutely understand why they've made them.

"It was all about keeping them safe and everybody's absolutely bought into it.

"All in all, it was a really successful weekend. We're delighted with the way it went; everybody seems really happy. There were lots of smiling faces and it was just great to be back.

"Having been off for 18 months, and people have got their teeth for it, so to speak, they'll all be back next week!"

For more information about the Lochore Meadows parkrun, you can find them on Facebook, or at www.parkrun.org.uk/lochoremeadows.