The weekly parkrun has become a staple of many runners’ weekend routines, but few participants can be as energised and excited for their morning run as six-year-old Finley Hart.

The youngster has now notched up as many as 50 junior parkruns, and has no intention of stopping there.

It’s not just the very act of running which Finley enjoys though; his parents realised very early on that putting athletics on the television, or taking him to watch a competition, had him clapping excitedly at the spectacle.

Indeed, his parents, Sam Hart and Michael Smith, took Finley to his first athletics competition when he was less than a year old; there, he seemed to expend as much energy in the crowd as he would running his 2km every Sunday.

His mother, Miss Hart, said: “From when he was born, he got taken along to all kinds of different things – in a way, it’s just come naturally, really.

“I was having a look back and he attended his first athletics competition, a Birmingham Diamond League, when he was seven-months-old.

“From then on, it’s just been in his blood – he came with us to the 2017 World Championships in London and he just absolutely loved it.

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“At competitions, he will stand there and clap for hours; he finds it so amazing to be involved with and loves watching.”

Parkrun started in the UK in 2004, and now has 770 events taking place across the country each weekend, with Colchester’s taking place at Castle Park.

Its junior equivalent takes place on Sundays at Old Heath Recreational Ground, and his mother says he has reached his half century of his own volition.

“We’ve never pushed him to do it – it’s always what he wants to do.

“Each Sunday, I will say ‘Are you up for park run?’ and he’ll say ‘Yep’ – if he ever says ‘I’m not sure,’ I will always leave it.

“We didn’t go a few weeks ago because he just didn’t feel like it; to me, it doesn’t matter, because if he doesn’t want to go, he doesn’t want to go.”

And if he isn’t running at a competition, Finley will often find himself cheering on his parents, who run for Colchester Harriers, at a Southern League fixture.

“Anything we have a go at he’s always wanting to have a go too – he loves watching all of it.”