Vegan Runners star as Poland's independence day is marked at Southsea parkrun

It was a good show from the club with Jhon Cosgrove leading the way in first place with a new personal best for the course of 18min 05sec.

Susie MacGregor was the first lady finisher with her time of 19.59. She also got the highest age grading score of the week for the parkrun with 82.90 per cent.

Vegan Runners and England age-group marathon international Mike Harper achieved the second highest age grading with 76.14 per cent for his time of 20.32.

Ross Partridge, of Baffins Fitclub, had a strong run to take second place in 18.53 and there was a personal best of 19.27 for Daniel Cripps, who is in the junior 15-to-17 age group, and finished in fourth position.

Michelle Cartwright ran a time of 21.39 as she completed her 150th parkrun and was second female finisher.

It was a good showing from the Victory athlete who has done 90 of her parkruns at the Southsea event.

Michelle has also done Havant parkrun once and has run in Brighton, St Albans and Oxford among other venues.

In total 305 people completed the 5k out-and-back course with a challenging headwind to battle on the second half of the run.

Piotr Meller, Patryk Huczkowski, Urszula Do, Sebastian Miller, Kuba Kurowski and Jacek Bijak all completed the Southsea parkrun while celebrating Poland’s independence day.

The Southsea parkrun regulars were flying the flag and celebrating the day which is a national holiday in Poland.

Kelvin Howard (21.51) and Susan Lamb (33.48), who run for Baffins Fitclub, both got new personal bests.

Sarah Howard, Caroline Craven and Donna Wiltshire all completed their first parkruns.

The volunteers braved the rain and provided great support. The 5k promenade event starts at 9am every Saturday from Speakers’ Corner.

Meanwhile, at Portsmouth Lakeside parkrun the Denmead Striders crew were on the charge on Saturday with Gary Armstrong first (18.36), Matt Cheyney second (18.46) and Adam Chant in third position with a new Lakeside personal best of 18.53.

Jo Payze finished first lady in 22.29 and Nicky Thomas, of Portsmouth Joggers, was second with Clanfield’s Barbara Hathaway third.

In total 180 people completed the 81st Portsmouth Lakeside event.

Ian Jones, of Denmead Striders, and Simon Burrough, of Clanfield Joggers, both got new personal bests as they also ran well and showed they are in strong form.