RADCLIFFE AC junior Olivia Whittaker retained her ladies’ crown at the Run Heaton Park 5k, knocking 52 seconds off the time she ran when winning the same race in July.

She ran a course personal best of 25mins 27secs to finish first woman and a superb 15th out of 118 runners in Sunday’s race and said: “It was really tough but the club has helped me so much.”

In the same race, Kris Lee took sixth place overall and was also first Vet-40 in 21:41.

Emma Wolstencroft ran 1:01:29 in the Run Heaton Park 10k on the same day and Gail Champion clocked 2:15:30 to claim fifth Vet-40 in the half-marathon.

Donna Cartwright continued her strong form in the Red Rose Cross Country League with another top-10 finish.

She was seventh in the women’s race and first Vet-40 over the hilly and muddy course at Todmorden.

Eight women competed in Saturday’s penultimate race of the four-race league, with Katie Percival finishing 24th in 27:34.

Hayley Winder ran 30:32, Paula Abernethy was fourth Vet-50 in 30:42, Caroline Malone clocked 35:49, Deborah Barrington finished in 37:48, Karen Doherty ran 39:15 and Elaine Bailey was second Vet-60 in 39:33.

Head coach Ian Warrington was first home for the club in the men’s race, finishing 34th in 43:03. Also running were Robert Short, who finished in 44:13, Craig Norman (44:39), Paul Barrington (58:45), Mark Garner (59:22) and Mark Wolfenden (1:03:35).

The ladies’ team was sixth and the men’s team was 12th.

It was a double race weekend for two of the cross country runners when they joined a seven-strong contingent from Radcliffe at the Windmill Remembrance 10k.

Abernethy was third Vet-50 in 44:22 on the flat coastal course in Lytham St Annes, while Deborah Barrington clocked 53:43.

A two-minute silence was held by the 2,000 runners before the start to mark Remembrance Sunday.

Dave Rushton was first home for the club in 43:41, Sheila Jones was first Vet-60 in 48:01.

Other results: Tracy Wroe 57:26, Sarah Rushton 1:00:26, Deborah Warrington 1:03:38, Natalie Hitchen 1:11:25, Bev Quinton 1:14:38.

Andy Wheeler celebrated his birthday by running 28:50 at the Andy O’Sullivan MBE 5k at Cowm Reservoir, Whitworth.