North Wales Road Runner Will Williams completed a unique double at the weekend by competing in two very different and extremely fast 5k races and claimed two sub-18-minute finishes.

Will Williams competed in the Mid Cheshire 5k dash and was delighted with another course personal best in an amazing time of just 17 minutes and 33 seconds.

Despite this superb result, however, Will still finished in 327th place out of nearly 700 elite athletes with the first thirty-seven runners incredibly dipping under thirteen minutes in an ultra-fast race.

Quite remarkably, Jack Gray (Cambridge & Coleridge) won the race in 13.58, and Nic Brook (Eryri Harriers) also competed, and finished 258th in 16.56.

Following his Cheshire race, Will remarked: “A slight PB improvement, so small steps in a very fast and stacked race. I finished 6th in my age cat, so not bad given the high standard.”

And then on Sunday, Will travelled to Cardiff for the Welsh 5k championships and finished 4th in his age cat in 17.43. After the race Will confirmed: “I finished 204th overall out of 1,641 runners, and I was 4th in my Welsh Champs age cat. I was just outside the medals but ran two sub-18 min 5k efforts this weekend on two very different courses, so happy with the progress and loving the journey.”

Other race results:

  • Ceredigion: Kay Hatton and Cheryl Frost travelled to Devil’s Bridge at Ceredigion on Sunday for the Red Kite Challenge which was a mix of trail and cross-country in the Welsh championships over a challenging 14 mile-plus course.

After the race Cheryl said: “It was over a mile longer than a half marathon, very brutal with 2,700ft elevation, muddy, but very scenic too. We stuck together until mile 11.5, then I got lactic and cramp. Kay finished in 2 hours 35 minutes, and I finished about 2.42, but forgot to stop my watch.

“We both won our age cats in the race, and we both won gold medals too. Legs a bit tired but it was a hard race after a marathon.”

  • Lytham: Ben and Sarah Hudson took part in the Lytham Hall parkrun last Saturday with Ben winning his MV45 age cat in 13th place overall in 20.58, with Sarah 18th and 2nd in her MV40 cat in 21.44.