Participants will be able to compete virtually against other runners as well as other sports

England Athletics has launched the Weekly30 Run Challenge, a free weekly virtual running challenge starting June 20-21, encouraging everyone to run for 30 minutes a week and compete against each other.

With group running and mass participation events currently restricted, the aim of the Weekly30 Run Challenge is to help keep people fit while giving them a performance benchmark through inclusive, friendly competition.

From this weekend, participants will be challenged to run as far as they can in 30 minutes on Saturday or Sunday each week, while following government guidelines.

Runners can register for free via the OpenTrack virtual running events website at data.opentrack.run/en-gb/x/2020/GBR/weekly30/

Once registered, participants complete their weekly run and then upload evidence to OpenTrack through a platform such as Strava, which is integrated into the Weekly30 Run Challenge.

Every runner will see their results added to the scoring tables. Both total distance and average distance contribute to overall league tables showing results for all individuals, sport versus sport and England Athletics club/RunTogether group versus England Athletics club/RunTogether group.

“Our Weekly30 Run Challenge gives individuals a perfect incentive to run safely on a weekly basis, adhering to government guidance, and in doing so proudly representing their sport, club or group,” says England Athletics CEO Chris Jones.

“Participants will be competing against an online community of other runners not only from other England Athletics’ member clubs and RunTogether groups but from other sporting disciplines – the competition across the country we expect to be fierce and the pride of our clubs, running groups and the sport as a whole is at stake: I say let the rivalry begin!”

He adds: “We know that alongside the c.6 million regular monthly runners in England, there are c.6 million people who are more occasional runners, c.8 million people who are lapsed and c.4 million people who have an interest in running but not yet started so we’re expecting our Weekly30 Run Challenge to get more people lacing up their trainers and going for a run.”

Some of the other sporting associations involved include Badminton England, RFU, RFL, British Rowing, England Netball, Archery GB, Table Tennis England and British Wrestling.

Click here to register.