A junior parkrun in Torfaen has celebrated its 10th anniversary.

Pontypool junior parkrun reached the milestone over the Christmas period, marking a decade of encouraging the youth of South Wales to stay active.

The event is part of the global parkrun initiative, which is a free, fun, and friendly weekly community event organised by volunteers for children aged four to 14.

One of the young runners who attended the celebratory morning said: "Pontypool junior parkrun is extremely fun, the volunteers are lovely and they don’t care how fast or slow you are.

"Also, you can make friends like I did.

"I made a best friend at Pontypool parkrun.

Volunteers celebrated with balloons at the finish line (Image: Pontypool junior parkrun)

"We run together every week and sometimes we try to run fast to get a PB and other times we run around and chat.

"It also keeps you really fit and now we do the 5km parkruns together on Saturday mornings and we can only do that because we started doing 2km at Pontypool.

"That’s why I love doing it."

The 2km junior parkrun events take place on Sunday mornings across the UK, Ireland, and Australia, forming a key part of the 10 million strong community worldwide.

Last May, parkrun released its mental health and well-being survey which found that eight out of 10 parents and caregivers reported that junior parkrun has had a positive impact on their child’s sense of personal achievement.

Three out of four children felt happy when they participated in junior parkrun according to the survey.

Deb Clarke, Pontypool junior parkrun's event director, said: "It was lovely to have the very first event director and some of the original volunteers join us for our 10th anniversary celebration, and quite emotional.

"We make a point of celebrating all milestones (runners and volunteers) during the briefing and again in our run report.

"We make sure, during our briefings, to enforce the message that it is a run, not a race and we just want the children to go at their own pace and have fun.

"All in all, I couldn’t ask for a better start to a Sunday morning, and hope I will still be part of it to celebrate the next 10 years."

Ms Clarke also highlighted the power of volunteers, saying: "It is a real privilege to be the event director at Pontypool junior parkrun.

"I am lucky to have the support of an amazing core team of regular volunteers so we rarely struggle to fill the roster.

"There are a couple of parents, but the majority have no children taking part and volunteer for the joy of seeing the children enjoying themselves on a Sunday morning - it’s difficult to leave here not smiling."

The nearest parkrun can be found on the parkrun website.