A women's 10k race is to return to Glasgow, four years after an event with a 26-year history was controversially axed.
GSI Events is to stage the 6.2mile event on Sunday, June 18, which is expected to prove popular with runners who were disappointed by the loss of the UK's first women-only 10k in 2019.
The first event was launched by Glasgow City Council in 1993, which set up a women’s jogging network to encourage female runners to take part.
Beginner running courses were organised to prepare entrants that were hugely popular at the time.
Over the years it was seen as a "first race" for women starting out on their running journey. It was the UK's only all-female 10k race.
The event was later taken over by the Great Run Company, which organises a series of 10k and half marathon events across the UK including the Great Scottish Run in October.
READ MORE: McColgan wins Great Scottish Run 10k in record time
The organisers of the Great Women’s Run in Glasgow announced in 2018 that the landmark event was being scrapped after more than two decades due to dwindling numbers taking part.
They said more female runners were now taking part in the mixed, Great Scottish Run 10k, which it also organises.
Glasgow Life, which contributed £150,000 to stage the event, said its goal of encouraging more women to participate in sport “had been achieved” and said resources would be focussed on the further development of the Great Scottish Run.
However, the decision prompted an angry and emotive backlash from women runners, who praised the event’s supportive and inclusive atmosphere, with one remarking: “It was a mark of pride that Glasgow held the UK’s largest women’s 10k road race.”
Scottish track legend Liz McColgan was among those who spoke out saying such races had helped, “encourage women who might not have confidence in their fitness to get out there and run”.
When GSI Events launched a women-only race in 2021 SportScotland said: "We know that, for some people, a women-only or men-only event can be appealing."
READ MORE: Edinburgh to launch women's 10k race
The new route begins at the Riverside Transport Museum before runners will make their way along the River Clyde taking in landmark buildings including the Glasgow Science Centre, The Armadillo, The SECC and the SSE Hydro.
It then heads over the Clyde and back, crossing over the 'Squiggly Bridge' and then George V Bridge.
Runners will then weave their way through the City Centre and up Buchanan Street just before hitting the half-way mark.
The second half of the route will take runners past the south side of George Square and down towards Glasgow Green, taking in the People's Palace, before heading back towards George Square where cheering crowds await to help runners in one last effort to cross the finish line.
A spokeswoman for GSI Events said: "Women’s 10K is the perfect opportunity for women to lace up those trainers and make a difference, either to their own life or someone else’s."
The first 100 entrants with a charity page setup will get £5 off their entry.
Glasgow’s women's 10k was originally held in the west of the city before it moved to the south, raising thousands for charitable causes every year. It later returned to the west, beginning on Kelvin Way.
To register for the GSI Events Women's 10k go to www.womens10k.co.uk
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