London Youth Games Foundation (LYG) was hugely disappointed to have to cancel the season opening Cross Country event at Parliament Hill on Saturday 18th November.

The Cross-Country event is an excellent and inclusive curtain raiser for the LYG season. LYG believe sport is a fundamental right for all and are committed to creating life-changing opportunities for all young Londoners through the power of sport and physical activity.

As Saturday’s event drew nearer and the forecasted conditions deteriorated LYG took the difficult decision on Friday evening to cancel the event.

LYG CEO Andy Dalby-Welsh said “I sincerely apologise for the late cancelation and the inconvenience it caused to all involved. We understand the disappointment this decision brought to many young people, their families, the workforce and other partners. This was a very difficult call to make. Every year, we look forward to welcoming runners from across London to the Cross-Country event, however the safeguarding of our participants, their families and our workforce will always be paramount.

For those more experienced athletes with the right equipment the course would have been runnable. However, we pride ourselves on this event drawing many young people from many different backgrounds. Therefore, for some this would not have been a safe or enjoyable experience in the forecasted deteriorating conditions we were faced with.”

We would like to thank our Borough Team Organisers who had to contact their runners and families at short notice. We would also like to thank City of London Corporation for providing the course and South-East England Athletics for support for the day.

We remain committed to creating life-changing opportunities through the power of sport for all young Londoners. We will explore the potential of rearranging the event for later in this Olympic and Paralympic year. In the meantime, thank you for your patience and understanding.