Scottish runner takes down Andy Baddeleys long-standing mark at the Silverknowes event in Edinburgh

Andy Baddeleys reign as parkrun world record-holder came to an end on Saturday (June 24) when Andy Butchart improved his mark by three seconds to 13:45 at the Silverknowes parkrun in north-west Edinburgh.

Baddeley ran 13:48 at the Bushy Park event in London in August 2012 and it has stood the test of time since. But Butchart stormed around the Silverknowes course to claim the record.

It is a performance that is sure to get more attention than the 5000m at this weekends European Team Championships in Poland, where in-form Jonny Davies races for Britain. Judging by the huge amount of attention that parkrun performances attract, it could even overshadow Butcharts previous achievements on the track.

Baddeley once won the Dream Mile in Oslo with 3:49.38, but he later became arguably better known for being the long-time parkrun record-holder. World 1500m champion Jake Wightman has also joked in the past that people can relate to his parkrun results moreso than his track times.

Butchart has also enjoyed success on the track and among other things was sixth in the Rio Olympic 5000m final in 2016 in 13:08.61. More recently he has stepped up to 10,000m with a Scottish record of 27:36.77 and Silverknowes was his first race since finishing first Brit, in 10th, at the Night of the 10,000m PBs in London in 27:47.43.

Parkrun, of course, famously describe their events as a run and not a race and the distances of parkrun courses are not always exactly 5km and the ground underfoot varies a lot from event to event.

READ MORE: Parkrun fastest and slowest courses

Organisers describe the Silverknowes course as scenic, flat and run on generally wide footpaths, adding as it borders the Firth of Forth, you can be exposed to the elements. The course is designed to be enjoyable, rather than for pure PB speed.

The 31-year-old Central AC athlete, who is married to 800m international Lynsey Sharp, has also run 62:58 for the half-marathon and has ambitions of moving up to the marathon in coming years.

The fastest parkrun by a woman in the UK is 15:31 by Melissa Courtney-Bryant set last Christmas in Poole.

Boosted by victories from Sophie OSullivan, Louise Shanahan, James Ezeonu and Sarah Lavin, Ireland win the division three match ahead of Austria

Irish athletes enjoyed a brilliant three days in Chorzow, Poland, as they won the division three match at the European Team Championships.

With Austria finishing as runners up and Israel in third, the three teams earned promotion to division two.

With a big lead going into the final event, the mixed 4x400m relay, Ireland rounded their competition off in emphatic style by winning by 40 metres from Austria in 3:17.16 as the anchor runner, Sharlene Mawdsley, followed her earlier victory in the individual womens 400m.

Sophie OSullivan, daughter of three-time European champion and 1995 world 5000m gold medallist Sonia OSullivan, marked her senior Irish debut with a victory in the womens 1500m. The 21-year-old US-based athlete has made big improvements this year and clocked 4:27.96 to win a tactical race.

OSullivans mum won the same event at the European Cup Second League three times in the early 1990s.

Further Irish victories also came via Mark Smyth (main image above) in the mens 200m in 20.66 as he also anchored the mens 4x100m to victory as well.

David Cussen won the mens high jump on countback after he and Austrias Lionel Strasser had cleared 2.11m. Irelands Eric Favors took the mens shot put in 20.28m.

Ellie McCartney won the womens pole vault with 4.20m, while Louise Shanahan produced a strong finish to take the womens 800m in 2:03.39. The experienced Thomas Barr, meanwhile, took the mens 400m hurdles in 49.41.

There were also Irish victories in the sprint hurdles courtesy of James Ezeonu and Sarah Lavin. Ezeonu, 19, is one of several Irish athletes studying in the US and he clocked 14.31 to take maximum points. For Lavin, her sizzling 12.82 win came just two months after the death of her boyfriend Craig Breen, a rising force in world motor rallying, after a freak accident in Croatia.

Austria put up a strong challenge for the win, though, with great performances from athletes like Susanne Gogl-Walli in the 200m with 23.09 and 4x100m and mixed relay, plus Lukas Weisshaidinger, who won the discus with 62.12m.

The European Team Champs is renowned for its rollercoaster results, however, and one of Austrias low moments was its mens 4x100m team being disqualified as Ireland won in 39.57.

The top teams aside, Albanias Luiza Gega created history as she joined Bulgarias Ivet Lalova-Collio as the most successful athlete in competition history (with 11 wins) after firstly out-kicking Lonah Salpeter of Israel to win the womens 5000m in 15:32.39 and later returning to set a championship record of 9:17.31 in the 3000m steeplechase.

Final standings: 1 Ireland 494; 2 Austria 473.5; 3 Israel 434; 4 Bosnia & Herzegovina 363; 5 Malta 352.5; 6 Georgia 290; 7 Andorra 269; 8 Montenegro 258; 9 Albania 257; 10 Armenia 255; 11 Republic of North Macedonia 235; 12 San Marino 192; 13 Azerbaijan 180; 14 Kosovo 150; 15 Liechtenstein 32

Hungary earn promotion to first division along with Ukraine and Lithuania with Slovenia just missing out

No doubt inspired by the prospect of hosting the World Championships in Budapest in August, Hungary rose to the occasion in Chorzow, Poland, to top the table in division two of the European Team Championships.

Ukraine and Lithuania joined Hungary in earning promotion to division one, with Slovenia agonisingly missing out by half a point, whereas Moldova, Luxembourg and Iceland wound up at the bottom and will slide into division three.

Hungarian individual victories came from athletes like Anita Marton, who won the womens shot with 17.74m, plus Luca Kozak, who took the womens sprint hurdles in 12.89.

In the mens 400m, meanwhile, Attila Molnar won in 45.30 just one hundredth of a second ahead of Ukraines Oleksandr Pohorilko. There was also victory for Hungary in the womens 4x100m in a national record of 43.49 (see main image above).

Keen to regain promotion to the top tier, Ukraine brought out some of their big-name athletes with Yaroslava Mahuchukh winning the high jump with 1.97m.

Horizontal jumps specialist Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk of Ukraine had mixed fortunes, though, as she won the triple jump with 14.58m but fouled her efforts in the long jump.

As Hungary cemented their lead ahead of Ukraine throughout the three-day competition, however, there was a big scrap for the minor team medals with Lithuania just edging out Slovenia in the end.

Slovenia were bolstered by discus giant Kristjan Ceh, who threw championship records of 69.29m and 69.94m to earn his country maximum points.

Tina Sutej also gave Slovenia top points with a womens pole vault victory with a best of 4.50m.

There were heroics in the final event, the 4x400m mixed relay, as Slovenias anchor runner, Anita Horvat, brought her team from third to first place as Lithuania finished fourth.

But Lithuania had greater consistency over the three days and finished just ahead on the final points scoring.

Final standings: 1 Hungary 456.5; 2 Ukraine 435.5; 3 Lithuania 372.5; 4 Slovenia 372; 5 Romania 344; 6 Denmark 312; 7 Serbia 307; 8 Slovakia 302; 9 Croatia 301.5; 10 Estonia 298.5; 11 Bulgaria 298.5; 12 Cyprus 288; 13 Latvia 283.5; 14 Iceland 246.5; 15 Luxembourg 198; 16 Moldova 170

Two-time Olympian and former British 100m record-holder was one of Britains finest female sprinters in the late 1960s and early 1970s

Della Pascoe, who competed in the sprints at the 1968 and 1972 Olympics for Britain, has died aged 74. The former British 100m record-holder, who was married to fellow Olympian Alan Pascoe, passed away peacefully on Thursday (June 22) after suffering from Parkinsons Disease in recent years.

Born in Southsea on March 28, 1949, as Della James, she enjoyed great success as a teenage athlete, winning AAA under-17 titles at 100 and 220 yards in 1965, English Schools 100 yards gold in Blackburn in 1966 and English Schools 220 yards gold in Peterborough in 1967.

Aged just 19 and competing for London Olympiades, she went to the Mexico Olympics in 1968 where she reached the semi-finals in the 100m. In the quarter-final, though, she tied Dorothy Hymans hand-timed UK 100m record of 11.3.

In the same year she was also part of a world record-breaking squad in the 4x200m when she combined with Maureen Tranter, Janet Simpson and Val Peat to clock 1:33.8.

With PBs of 11.36 for 100m and 23.5 for 200m, she was one of Britains best sprinters of the era and went on to represent England at the Commonwealth Games in 1970 in Edinburgh.

When it came to national titles she was crowned Womens AAA indoor 60m champion in 1967 and took indoor 200m gold in 1969, whereas outdoors she won the Womens AAA 100m title in 1972 in 11.86. In all she won 12 medals at the Womens AAA Championships.

At the 1972 Munich Olympics she was knocked out in the quarter-finals of the 200m but teamed up with Andrea Lynch, Judy Vernon and Anita Neil to finish seventh in the 4x100m final.

There was disappointment in 1973, though, when she was controversially overlooked for the 1974 Commonwealth Games team despite finishing top three in the 100m and 200m at the trials. Amid suspicions that she was penalised for being married to Alan Pascoe, who was building a reputation as an outspoken voice of the athletes, she wasnt even picked for the relay and decided to retire from the sport.

The Pascoes met as teenagers when Alan joined the coaching group of Dellas father, Doug James. Alan and I met at the running track in Portsmouth, she told AW in 2017. I had to slow down for him to catch me.

On her fathers coaching, she added: When I look back now I think we couldnt have been fitter. He used to have us jumping over walls and in the stadium wed go running up the steps, jumping over the barriers. It was very hard but we all used to do it all, and we were all really fit. That was the ground rules of his training the fitness aspect.

She worked as an art teacher and later became heavily involved in charity work raising hundreds of thousands of pounds, partly through popular garden parties, in addition to having two children, Lucy and Daniel.