RUNNERS from far and wide turned out in force on Sunday for the annual Peebles Three Bridge Races.

The sun shone on the athletes, the crowds were in great voice and in return they were treated to an afternoon of top class running.

James Dunn (Edinburgh) was the winner of the Three Bridges Open Handicap, winning the George Pennel Challenge Shield and the £125 prize money.

Setting off as the back marker, he made up excellent ground on the first lap, lying third at the bell.

Steadily increasing the pace to move into 1st place not long after, once in position he established a lead that was not to be relinquished. James crossed the line in a time of 20mins 59. This event was sponsored by Davie Duthie Autos (Peebles).

In the Tweed Line Taxis Youths Open Handicap, local lad Lyle Cormack Irvine made an excellent run against some tough competition. Running an fantastic race from start to finish, Lyle crossed the line in a time of 11min 30.

The schools relay races, proved to be an excellent warm up from the cross country events.

The support of the parents and teachers encouraging the performance of their children help produce a brilliant atmosphere.

In the Primary Schools Relay race for P4/P5, with schools less than 120 pupils, the winners were Newlands Primary School.

The Relay Race for P4 children from schools with more than 120 pupils produced a fantastic finish. And in the end was declared a dead heat between Kingsland and Priorsford Primary Schools.

The final relay race was the P5s from schools with more than 120 pupils. St Ronan's Primary School took the honours. The Relay Races were all sponsored by Paul and Louise Spence from Peebles.

In the Primary Schools Race for Girls, Kingsland A took the winning team trophy, with Stella Davidson taking the individual winners prize in a time of 10min 58.

The final results were: 1st Kingsland A , 2nd Priorsford A, 3rd Kingsland B.

This event was sponsored by Kingsmuir Construction Ltd with the individual winner’s voucher and hooded sweatshirt donated by Tweedlove.

The Primary Schools Race for Boys was again, a very tight contest. After a close battle between the top three teams it was Priorsford A who were the eventual winners. St Ronan's came in a close second and Kingsland A came third. The star of this race was individual winner Ross Wolfenden for West Linton Primary, running a 10-minute race for the second year running.

The last Race of the afternoon was the 1.5 mile team race, more commonly referred to as the 'fun run'.

Ages ranged from six years old to the more mature. The winning team called themselves Blue Ninjas, made up of pupils from Priorsford Primary School.

The individual winner was eight-year-old Toru Keen, a P4 pupil at Priorsford Primary School, for the 2nd year in a row – a one to watch for next year.

This event was sponsored by the Beltane Committee and the winners' voucher was donated by Rogersons of Peebles.

Sarah Keen, of Peebles Youth Trust, presented the trophies during the afternoon.

The Three Bridges Races in 2019 will be on Sunday May 12.