Winning return for Bristol runner Wills

Jon Wills convincingly won the feature event at the first South West 3,000m Championship held at the Exeter Arena on Tuesday night.

The event was added to the British Milers' Club timetable, squeezed in before an incredible 16 800m races that attracted a record entry of 173 athletes from across the West Country.

Owain Jones set an 8mins 20sec pace and only Wills responded with his Bristol & West AC team-mates of Steve Gallienne and Tom Merson chasing.

When Jones stepped aside, Wills maintained his form well to cross the line in 8mins 28.4secs.

"For my first race back, that wasn't too bad," said Wills.

"I had to take a break because my form in races and training really dropped off and I was also diagnosed with low iron levels.

"I'm feeling a lot better now and hopefully I can get back down to 8mins 15secs by the end of the summer."

Merson finished strongly after a good tussle with B&W junior Nathan Young to smash his personal best by nearly 20 seconds with 8:38.9.

"My best before was 8mins 56secs so I'm delighted," said Merson.

Young also clocked a PB of 8:41.1 in third with Morpeth AC's Nathan Shrubb, who is a teacher in Dorset, fourth.

Gallienne paid for his fast start, drifting back to sixth (9:06.1), Bristol & West's Dan Woolford was seventh (9:07.6) and Matt Peters ninth (9:14.8).

Teenager Zac Tobias, who is still an Under-15 athlete, battled to the finish in a creditable 9:39.2.

After her triumph in the Snowdon mountain race 10 days ago, Kate Goodhead has been selected to run for Great Britain in the European Mountain Race Championships on July 12 in Austria.

Adrian Pook, of Hogweed Trotters, finished 80th (1:41.52) in the Bourton hilly half-marathon.

Peter Foster, from Bristol Orienteering Klub, has become a King of the Cotswolds, having completed all 10 stages of the Cotswold Way Relay in separate competitions.

Foster started with Stage Two in 1996 and finished with Stage Seven in Saturday's event, in an overall time of 15:08:00.

Yate & District AC veteran Mal Cowton clocked 2:17.8 at the Cheltenham Midsummer Open meeting on Wednesday.

North Somerset AC's Tasha Osgood set two new PBs in the 100m and 200m at the Avon League, while Katie Grinyer also ran a best in the 800m.

Hogweed Trotters' top performer in the Cotswold Way relay was Justin Littlechild, who won the Cleeve Common to Seven Springs leg.

Other top-10 finishers were Julian Lewis, Will Gray, Duncan Pearson, Anthony Glover, Steve Eastaugh-Waring and John Parry-Billings.

The first Hogweed team were the Hogweed Hilly Hurtlers, comprising Parry-Billings, Andy May, Littlechild, Eastaugh-Waring, Pearson, Paul Hyams, Mark Stephenson, Chris Martin, Gray and Lewis.

They came ninth and second veteran's team in an overall time of 13.46.43.

The next Blaise Blazer race around Blaise Castle will be held at 7pm on Monday with entries taken on the night.

Mandy Spedding, of Hogweed Trotters, was top woman at the Harwich Sprint triathlon in 77mins 08secs with husband Simon the first veteran Over-45 in the Harwich Olympic Distance event in 2:28.29.