Art Mitchell came home first in the inaugural running of the Longparish series of races around the village. The event, which raises money for the Friends of Longparish School, was run over three distances –  3K, 5K and 10K – and attracted nearly 180 entrants.

The 5k and 10k races started together, with Art overtaking several men in the first kilometre, to then lead from the front.

The overtaken men were full of encouragement for Art, right through to the finish line. To make it more interesting, the runners had to negotiate a series of gates, which made maintaining a consistent pace difficult.

Art won the difficult 5K, over a mixture of road and boggy trails, which made the ground underfoot very slippery.

Cameron Jacobs continued his reign as the faster U18 with victory in the 13th Leatherhead Rotary Bluebell 10K in Headley Heath, Surrey. The Polly family were instrumental in setting up this event as a fundraiser for the British Heart Foundation, Surrey Air Ambulance and other charities.

Following the recent rains, the course had some extremely muddy sections, giving it the feel of a cross country race. The bluebells, however, were stunning and helped distract the runners from the tough hill sections.

Cameron finished in 45:41, while his sister Elara, who was running the race for the first time, finished with a time of 50:05 and won a prize as the 5th fastest female overall.

Freddie Bosworth enjoyed an excellent Parkrun weekend, bagging a double personal best at Salisbury Parkrun and Churchill Gardens Junior Parkrun in weather conditions that contrasted heavily in the
24 hours that separated the two events. The icing on the cake for Freddie was finishing first at Junior Parkrun.

City of Salisbury Athletics and Running Club (CoSARC) continues to go from strength to strength, as the members enter all manner of races around the county.

Reports will follow here of how they got on.