A BUMPER crop of runners turned out for the first Saturday staging of a weekly event in 2019.

The weekly Basingstoke parkrun took place on Saturday in War Memorial Park, the first Saturday event of the New Year after a special edition was held on January 1.

And the event proved to be a big one as the second highest number of entrants ever to Basingstoke parkrun came along with 678 people braving the cold.

This was up from 448 runners on December 28, the last event before the New Year.

Event organisers joked the bumper numbers must have been down to New Year's resolutions.

The first runner to finish the 5km course was James Wooton, of Bath Triathlon Club, in a time of 17 minutes and 9 seconds with the first woman home being Alison James in 20 minutes and 47 seconds.

The highest number of runners seen at Basingstoke parkrun was 693 in May 2017.