Photo via BBC Sport

Trio bag ultra-marathon's first women-only UK podium

History was made in Derbyshire at the Hardwick Estate, where an ultra-marathon concluded with an exclusively female top three for the first time in UK backyard ultra racing. 16-mile circuit on the hour every hour until just a single participant endures.

4 miles. Hayley Wilson from Nottinghamshire's Worksop and Hollie Jones from Easby in Yorkshire secured second and third place, respectively.

Race director Eric Keeler noted that out of thousands of global backyard ultra results, an all-woman podium had previously occurred just once, in Iceland. The Hardwick venue, a National Trust property famously tied to Tudor businesswoman Bess of Hardwick, presented distinctive challenges including narrow estate gates, the UK series' most restricted starting area, and trails running directly through farmland populated by livestock.

Worldwide, the backyard ultra circuit encompasses over 700 competitions annually, with 55 staged within the United Kingdom.