RADCLIFFE Athletic Club’s Donna Cartwright had a superb age-group win at the ‘brutal’ Beast of the Black fell and trail race in the Brecon Beacons.

She was the first VW45 and seventh woman overall in the 20-mile race which has 4,700 feet of climbing.

Cartwright finished in 3hrs 38mins and said: “It was brutal with big climbs and some technical descents.

“There were no flat sections, you were either climbing or descending most of the way.”

Lots of Radcliffe runners took part in the popular Saturday morning 5k parkruns.

There was a strong turnout at Bolton where Gary Adkins was second in 19:09 and Rob Lister was 11th in 21:49. Also running were Mark Wolfenden (26:37), Kris Booth (27:02), Stephen Crowe (31:20) and Andy Wheeler (39:08). Vince Ashton was the volunteer tail walker.

At Heaton parkrun, Rob Shiels ran 19:25, Jenny Yates clocked 21:54 and Sheila Jones was once again first W65 in 23:01. Alison Howarth clocked 28:02 at Worsley Woods, followed by Tracy Wroe in 33:37, while Cheryl Gallagher ran 31:30 at Stretford.

Further afield, Paula Abernethy was first woman and 10th overall in 24:05 at Letterkenny parkrun in Ireland; Bev Quinton ran 39:23 at Nova Prestatyn and Deborah Warrington finished in 41:38 at the tough Winlatter Forest parkrun in the Lake District.

Peter Hunter and Chris Paxton ran 23:58 and 23:59 respectively at Burnley parkrun.