FOLLOWING last week's record-equalling turnout, this week's event again proved to popular with 310 taking part.

Leading the way home at event number 227 was Bolton United Harrier, Shay Walker.

After finishing second in the last two parkruns, he produced a fine run dipping under 18 minutes in what was his fastest run this year.

Following in 18mins 32secs was Thomas Fletcher who continued his impressive form this year.

The battle for third over the line was a close affair with Robert Short (Burnden Road Runners) edging Mark Warburton's time of 19:14 by one second after an exciting sprint finish.

Gwen Kinloch was the first lady to cross the finish line in her first appearance this year. The Burnden Road Runner crossed the line in a time of 21:52 followed by Isabella Merritt (Bolton United Harriers) who was just six seconds shy of a new PB in 22:24. Third over the line was Katherine Baines in 23:26 who, like Isabella, was close to setting a personal best.

Gwen Kinloch (81.71 per cent), Stephen Morran (80.10 per cent) and Shay Walker (79.02 per cent) provided the highest age-graded scores of the day.

Of the 310 runners, 42 were first timers with an amazingly high 56 personal best times.

Celebrating milestones this week were Craig Philpot who had his 100th outing, and Julie Newton, Alan Sweatman and Adrian Merritt who all chalked up their 50th runs.

Saturday's runner of the week is Judith Bonnar who smashed her personal best by a full eight seconds on her 36th appearance since setting her last personal best in September, stopping the watch at 25:21.

There were 18 volunteers involved in providing another successful Bolton parkrun: Alistair McArthur, Andrew Patterson, Brian Tull, Cecilia Woods, Christine Pendlebury, Craig Leatherbarrow, Dave Hitchen, David Allen, Hollie Patterson, Julie Hodgkinson, Katherine Baines, Malcolm Pittock, Mick Entwistle, Philip Glassbrook, Robert Short, Shirley Tull, Steven John O'Riordan, Steven Yates.