A DRY and bright morning greeted the 173 runners to the latest Barry Island parkrun event.

After the obligatory safety update, run director Dave Shields handed the runners over to co-event director Lyn Evans to break some sad news:

"Many of you will know that earlier this week we lost one of our longest serving and most popular volunteers, Richie Hemlock, after a long and happy life and a short illness.

"If you don't recognise Richard by name, then I'm sure many of you will fondly remember his smiling face from his regular spot outside Bay 5 cafe, which in the last 2 years he'd really come to make his own spot on the course.

"Richie came to parkrun through his daughter Sue, whose running he loved to be part of."

Mr Hemlock's daughter said her dad "loved the whole ethos behind parkrun and made some incredible friends.

"I'm so happy that me and dad found parkrun as it served as his weekly social event, and in his own words 'they're all such lovely people."

Sue would like to thank all of the parkrunners and friends through the running community for the kindness they've shown towards Richie over the last couple of years and all the messages that they've received since his death on Tuesday.

Run director Dave Shields described Mr Hemlock as: "A true gentleman who'll be sorely missed by all of us around the parkrun scene at Barry Island."

It was members of Barry's Seriously Mad Runners (SMR) that took first placings in both gender categories, with Dave Brown recording a maiden first finish for the men in a time of 19:30 and Caitlin Williams cementing another ladies first, stopping the clocks at 23:33. Brown set a PB and was joined by another 27 athletes also attaining new PB's - a quarter of which were from SMR.

Mr Shields would like to thank the following volunteers for giving up their time, ensuring the runners could have a safe, timed, event: Yvonne WILLIAMS • Lyn EVANS • Russell THORNE • Ian THORNE • Richard STREET • Ian WARBURTON • Evan WARBURTON • Tim MONCKTON • Kirstine HUGHES • Richard SEWELL • Khalid HAMANDI • Jason ELWORTHY • Nadia HAMANDI • Sophia HAMANDI • Carolyn HEPBURN • Alun CHAPPLE • Sarah THOMAS • Diane HITCHCOCK