Brent Atkins completed a hat-trick of Highbury Fields parkrun victories with a personal best in another tight finish on Saturday.

Atkins clocked a time of 16 minutes 58 seconds on his third appearance – and third success – at the weekly event, closely followed by previous winners Rob Walker (17:06) and David Hellard (17:37).

In all, 24 of the 109 parkrun entrants achieved personal bests – among them, Caroline Kelly, who led the women home for the 14th time in 19:45, followed by Grace Kimble (20:08) and Kathryn Evans, in a third consecutive pb of 21:56.

The best age grade performance came from Alan Freer (76.95 per cent), with a pb time of 20:19 in the men’s 55-59 category time.

Among the junior ranks, first-timers Leo Hanson (11-14) and Jetmir Syslisufaj (15-17) completed their debut runs in times of 28:01 and 30:43 respectively, while Ciaran Mahindru (15-17) finished in 22:04.

Included among the 23 Highbury Fields newcomers were several runners from SPAT (Social Purpose & Time, a non-profit organisation that provides running, fitness and nutritional programmes to homeless and disadvantaged young people aged 16-24).

Parkrun takes place every Saturday and is open to runners of all ages and abilities, free of charge. Visit www.parkrun.org.uk/highburyfields/ to register or for further information.

Saturday’s parkrun was organised by volunteers Alicia and David Armet, Jonathan Litchfield, Kim Butler and Jane Tooke.

No previous experience is needed to help out – training will be provided on the day.

You can email highburyfieldshelpers@parkrun.com for more details.