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Barbara Hodgson

Junior and Mini Great North Runs announce new date after postponing races

New dates have been announced for the Junior and Mini Great North Runs which were postponed at the weekend.

The popular events, which had been due to take place on Newcastle Quayside on Saturday during the build-up to the Great North Run on Sunday, had been postponed by organisers following the news of the Queen's death. Friday's Great North 5k and UK Athletics 5k Road Championships were also called off.

While the Great North Run itself went ahead as planned on September 11, it was not felt to be appropriate to hold the earlier races, with organisers saying they did not feel it was possible "to deliver the kind of event experience that children and their families would expect and still ensure it is an appropriate tribute to the life of the Queen".

Read more: How the Great North Run paid its respects to the Queen

Changes were also made to Sunday's main event to ensure respects were paid to the late monarch, with prayers at the start followed by tributes, a minute's silence and then the National Anthem as runners gathered under a giant banner of the Queen. Since then the Great Run Company, which organises all the events, have been working with partners to find an alternate date for Saturday's postponed events.

Previous Junior and Mini Great North Run (Newcastle Chronicle)

They have now announced the Great North 5k will now take place on Friday, October 7 and that the new date for the diary for the junior and mini runs will be Saturday, October 8. All entries for September's junior and mini will be automatically rolled over to the new date and those involved will be emailed by the company. Anyone who can not make the new date will have their entry transferred to next year's event on September 9, 2023.

A statement on the Great Run website said: "Other than the date of the event, everything else will remain as planned." It said that this includes "run numbers, timetables, the unveiling of Tyney the Tortoise, a fantastic atmosphere, a brand new event village, food and drinks stalls, and of course, the medals and goody bags".

It added: "We are aware that some of our runners will have been lucky enough to have had a birthday since the original date. All runners will take part in the wave that they were originally scheduled to run in, using the original race number."

For entry details and information about start times see here.

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