Dame Kelly takes town parkrun at her own pace

612th weekly parkrun event in Pittville Park was sprinkled with some extra gold dust on Saturday as double Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes was among the 731 participants.

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Dame Kelly Holmes at Cheltenham parkrun on Saturday, where she walked the route because of an injury

Dame Kelly, 55, who won gold medals in both the 800 and 1,500 metres at the 2004 Athens games, addressed the participants before the event and happily posed for pictures and chatted to people along the three-and-a-half lap route, before joining the volunteers at Leisure at Cheltenham to help sort finish tokens.

There were rumours that she would visit the parkrun on Friday as she posted a Facebook picture on the top of Cleeve Hill, and she later confirmed that she would be attending.

"A couple of things have brought me here," she said. "The first is obviously to do a parkrun, I am a tourist and I go round and try to show my face at as many parkruns as I can.