IT was a hat-trick of victories for Kurt Heron, as he retained his crown as king of the Bottoms Up Cup.
The annual 5k event, hosted by Washington Running Club in and around Princess Anne Park in the town, was won for the third time in a row by Heron in a time of 17m 20s.
The club attracted its biggest field to date with 183 taking part in the run, with a one mile fun run for kids also taking place, which had 89 competitors.
The race is in memory of one of the original Washington Running Club's members, Stephen Bottoms, and a total of £1350 was raised for Bloodwise, an organisation which has helped several existing members.
Club chairman Chris Clark said: “It was a very proud day for everyone involved with the club. We had a great mix of beginners enjoying their first race as well as some of the North-East’s best known club athletes. It was our biggest turn out to date as well and we raised over £1,300 for Bloodwise.
“The event just gets better each year and to see so many juniors taking part in the 1k run was brilliant. The atmosphere around the whole event was really positive and hopefully next year’s will be even bigger.
“Well done to Kurt again – we joked beforehand that if he won it for the third time we would have to rename the trophy after him!”
Top ten: 1 Kurt Heron 17:20.8; 2 Andrew Alderson (Blaydon Harriers) 17:49; 3 Steven Medd (17:49); 4 Gregory Poulton (Birtley AC) 18:00; 5 Tim Jones (Washington RC) 18:15; 6 Matthew Harris (18:28); 7 Stephen Gibson (Derwent Valley Trail Runners) 18:29; 8 Jason Oshin (Washington RC) 18:50; 9 Craig Smith (Washington RC) 18:59; 10 Peter Setterfield (Washington RC) 19:10
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