ST HELENS Sutton AC athletes took on the contrasting, cold winter weather and the warm air of the indoor track arena at the weekend.

Gemma Connolly (1:19.58) completed her hat-trick of the Essar Four Villages Half Marathon, battling snow, rain and wind to finish first woman over two minutes ahead of Leigh’s Laura Riches.

At the Sport City indoor track in Manchester, Michael Causer ran a personal best 6.97secs in the 60m to take first place.

His training partner Daniel Lamb achieved a season’s best of 7.17secs.

Both followed up with season bests in the long jump, Causer (6.93m) finishing second only 10cm behind first place, and Lamb (6.24m) fifth overall and first under 20s athlete.

David Twigg (18:14) took first place nearly a minute ahead at Widnes parkrun.

Amy Corfield was first woman and second finisher home with a new PB of 20:11 at St Helens parkrun.