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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Ben James

The new lockdown rules on outdoor exercise that have just been announced

Outdoor sports courts in Wales will be allowed to open on Monday.

However, that does not include contact or team sports - meaning it will be limited to activities like tennis.

First Minister Mark Drakeford made the announcement in a press conference on Friday following the latest review of the Welsh Government's coronavirus regulations.

Mr Drakeford said: "Restrictions on a wide range of outdoor activities will be lifted, enabling outdoor markets and sports courts to open – but not for contact or team sports yet."

The move also allows non-professional elite athletes, including Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, to resume training.

It was widely expected that outdoor sports courts would be allowed to open in the latest review, with the Welsh Government's traffic light roadmap - which sets out how Wales could exit the lockdown - having offered some guidance as to what the next step was likely to be.

The decision to not do so in the last review three weeks ago left many tennis players unhappy that Wales, alongside Andorra, were the only places in western Europe still to have all tennis activities suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic - with the governing body for the sport in Wales asking for urgent clarification.

The Welsh Government said the reason for not re-opening was because they could only lift a certain amount of restrictions in each period of lockdown and wanted to prioritise people seeing family members.

There were no other changes announced by the First Minister in terms of sport or exercise.

The rules about staying local remain in place until July 6 at the earliest, so you cannot travel more than five miles for any sporting activity.

And any outdoor activity can only be done either alone, with members of your own household or someone from one other household.

The full coronavirus regulations on the Welsh Government's website state that, from June 22, outdoor sport courts including outdoor tennis courts, outdoor bowling greens, outdoor basketball courts, outdoor golf driving ranges, outdoor cycling velodromes, outdoor athletics tracks and outdoor cricket nets will be allowed to open.

However, with a basketball court, for example, the restrictions on gathering and social distancing remains.

Those restrictions also mean that in practice managed sports pitches (such as 5 a side football pitches) cannot open.

Use our interactive tool to find out how many coronavirus cases there have been in your area:

You can read the full transcript of First Minister Mark Drakeford's address here while this piece covers exactly what the new rules announced on Friday mean.

Earlier on Friday the UK's coronavirus alert state was reduced from level four to level three.

To follow all the latest live reaction to the First Minister's announcement visit our rolling news blog here and remember that you can sign up for regular updates from WalesOnline with one of our newsletters – you can get more details through this link.

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