A DOUBLE Olympic Gold Medallist was given a warm welcome at Wepre Park.

Jade Jones, MBE, visited the Wepre Park Run over the weekend as part of the Teamparkrun initiative and chatted to runners, volunteers and spectators.

She joined the 178 park runners and 23 volunteers along with her family and their dog, signing autographs and cheering people on.

Rob Mackey, event director, said: “I had the privilege of tail-walking with her. She was everything that I had been told she would be.

“She chatted, stopped and spoke to all the volunteers, cheered on the runners as they passed and just appeared to be enjoying herself.”

Following on from the success of last year’s Teamparkrun initiative, the park run UK team had teamed up with The National Lottery and UK Sport to invite Britain’s top athletes to volunteer as Tail Walkers at events across the country, including Wepre Park in Connah's Quay.

Wepre Park run is a free, timed 5km run held in the park every Saturday morning at 9am.

A spokesman for the Wepre team said: “The event was made possible thanks to 23 volunteers who ensure that the course is safe and well-marked out.

“They record times and positions and process the results which are sent to every participant by text and email, usually within 30 minutes of the last runner finishing.”

Runners from Saturday’s event came from as far as Liverpool, Manchester and West Sussex and Trudi Parry ran her 100th park run, which she amazingly finished in 100th place.