Mick Hartley

From the Telegraph:

Parkrun’s gender “self-ID” policy allows biologically male runners to “smash women’s records to smithereens”, a former Olympian has claimed.

Mara Yamauchi, a British former elite marathon runner and Olympian, said this means the event’s “inclusion” results in the exclusion of females and their achievements.

A Parkrun female age group course record at one Parkrun was “smashed to smithereens by a trans-identifying male” on Saturday, she said, adding that this meant the record was “probably now out of female hands forever”.

“The previous holder appears to be a local legend,” she said.

Parkrun, a global community fun run of organised weekly 5km races at different locations, which began in Teddington in 2004, allows runners to self-identify their gender as either “male” or “female”, as well as having options for those who are non-binary or prefer not to say….

Fiona McAnena, of campaign group Fair Play For Women, said: “I think it’s a great illustration of how people get confused about inclusion, because they think it’s inclusive to let males declare themselves to be women.

“They say Parkrun is a run not a race but Parkrun does publish the results by sex, they do give you a finishing place and they do declare the men’s and women’s course record for every Parkrun in the world.

“If the course record matters enough to put up on a website it matters to the woman who has got it. There’s a lot to love about Parkrun but they’ve got this wrong. They are taking away women’s chances to be first in their age category and first in their sex class. That’s not inclusive, that’s not kind.”

Men are, generally, stronger and faster than women – that's why women's sport needs to be women-only. Inclusion – "being kind" by letting men compete in women's races – means that women's sport is ruined. It's really not that difficult to understand.