Women's Winter Running & Walking

Sargent Lena Grimes from PSNI delivered a talk on safety for women, Antrim and Newtownabbey Policing and Community Safety Partnership (PCSP) gave out valuable safety packs while ONUS Training & Consultancy provided information on the training they provide to community groups and organisations on keeping women safe.

We were also delighted to have Ciara Mageean, two time Olympian & 2024 European Championship Gold Medallist join us on the evening. Ciara, an athlete runner from Portaferry, specialises in the 1500 metres and is the reigning European 1500m Champion.
She was 4th in the 2023 World Championships and won silver in the 2022 European Championships, Commonwealth Games and Diamond League Final. She is the Irish record holder for 800m (1:58.51),  1000m (2:31.06), 1500m (3:55.87) and 1 mile (4:14.58) as well as the 1500m and 3000m indoors.  Ciara won a silver medal at the 2010 World Junior Championships.

The abuse of women runners: Implications for the violence against women and girls policy agenda, written by Dr Caroline Miles and Professor Rose Broad, explores the range of abuse women runners face, ranging from verbal to physical, and the steps which can be taken to prevent this. They found that: 

• Over two-thirds of women runners across the region have experience abuse, but only 5% of women survey reported this abuse to the police. 

• 82% of women said they have safety concerns around running and take a multitude of measures to increase their feelings of safety, including taking items for safety, such as keys between their fingers as a weapon, 

• In 2021-22, Greater Manchester and Merseyside Police recorded just 81 offences involving abuse of women runners, despite survey data suggesting the number is far higher. 

You can find the full article with recommendations on The University of Manchester website.