It all came down to this.

After five races of the Upton Summer Series, there was very little left to settle. The Bournemouth AC women had already wrapped up the team competition with four wins from the first five races, Helen Beddoe had secured the Female 40-44 title and a number of the individual battles had been decided.

But there were still some rather important questions to answer.

Most notably, the overall women’s title was effectively a case of winner takes all between Bournemouth AC’s Kitty Cook and Helen O’Neile of Poole Runners.

Kitty had given herself a real chance of taking the series with a huge victory over Helen in the previous race. Helen, though, had other ideas and produced her fastest performance of the series in the finale.

Her time of 22:01 was enough to secure the overall women’s Summer Series title.

There was a slight twist to the result, however. Helen wasn’t actually the first female home in Race Six.

That honour went to Isla Tweed, who finished 11th overall in 21:33.

Carys Gallagher of Westbourne was third female overall, followed by Lauren Baker-Little of Poole Runners and Vicky Rutter of Littledown Harriers. Sophie Beisley of Poole AC was sixth female, with Helen Beddoe and Michelle Dorrington seventh and eighth overall.

And while Kitty wasn’t quite able to reproduce the performance that had put her right into contention for the overall title, she did at least come away with some silverware.

Indeed, it was the Female 18-39 category title.

At first glance, that might seem a little difficult to reconcile with Helen winning the overall series after beating Kitty in the final race. But the category scoring produced a slightly different outcome.

Kitty finished first in the category three times – twice when Helen wasn’t running and then again in Race Five when she beat Helen head-to-head.

So, while Helen took the overall honours, Kitty had done enough across the series to take the category title.

Given the season she’d put together, it would have seemed a little harsh for Kitty to come away empty-handed and it was good to see her rewarded with the category victory.

Smith seals the men’s title

There was an interesting turn of events in the men’s overall competition, although this one was rather less dramatic on the night.

Riley Austin was the only man who could deny Andrew Smith of Poole Runners the Summer Series title, but he needed to win the final race to do it.

Riley didn’t turn up.

That left Andrew with the title and he marked the occasion in the best possible fashion, winning Race Six in 19:34.

Ben Shawyer was second in 19:46, exactly where he finished in the overall series. He did at least add the Male 14-17 category title to his collection.

Joe Wilson was third in 20:15, a result that lifted him to fourth overall in the series, behind Ed Davies of Twemlow Track Club, who didn’t compete in the final race.

Iain Ferguson of Poole Runners was fourth in 20:41, finishing ninth overall for the series.

David Penwarden, also of Poole Runners, was fifth in 20:49 and crossed the line just three seconds ahead of 50-54 rival Clin Byrne of Poole AC.

Tom Casson produced another solid run, finishing ninth in 21:12.

His splits of 5:38, 6:12 and 6:22 tell the story, with Tom getting through the final half mile at around six-minute-mile pace. He was still averaging a respectable 6:23 per mile by the finish.

The result did, however, have a sting in the tail as far as the overall standings were concerned.

David had drawn level with Tom on points, and because he finished ahead of him in the final race, David took fifth place overall and Tom slipped to sixth.

Callum Pearson completed all six races and finished 19th in Race Six in 22:20, averaging 6:23 pace. That left him 26th in the overall series standings and fifth in the Male 14-17 category.

Helen Beddoe was sixth female in 24:12, finishing 38th overall. It was another first in the Female 40-44 category for the newly crowned series champion.

Tim Hughes took the handbrake off a little more in the final race after approaching the previous one more conservatively.

That produced a rather quick first mile, meaning there was a little more work to do in the closing stages, but Tim crossed the line in just over 27 minutes – remarkably similar to his previous effort. He finished 73rd overall and seventh in the Male 55-59 category.

Emma Biggs completed the course in 32:23, finishing 114th overall and 40th female. That gave her 44th place in the series as a whole.

Matilde Blagden was 24th female and third in the Female 14-17 category.

Junior series goes right down to the wire

There was plenty at stake in the Junior Summer Series too.

Adam Ewen Matthews of Poole AC arrived at Race Six knowing that a win or second place would be enough to seal the overall title.

He didn’t leave it to chance.

Adam won the mile-long final race in 4:55, finishing eight seconds clear of Seth Holleyman of Poole Runners.

It was a fitting conclusion to what had been an excellent series for Seth. He had won the two races that Adam Ewen Matthews didn’t contest and finished second in each of the other four races.

But Adam’s fourth victory was enough to settle the championship.

Zacary Armitage of New Forest Juniors was third in 5:14, which left him fourth overall in the series, just behind Stelios Pavlou of Poole Runners in third.

Aiden Blagden didn’t run in the final race but finished second in the Boy 13 category and fifth overall in the series.

Jacob Warren of Poole Runners finished sixth overall.

For Bournemouth AC, Edward Davies was sixth in Race Six in 5:34. That put him seventh overall in the final series standings.

Marlon Moxey produced his best finish of the series, coming home 11th in 5:58. Having competed in four of the races, he finished 18th overall.

Girls’ series also settled

The Girl competition provided another close battle.

Louise Fuoco of Poole Runners was first girl home in Race Six, finishing ninth overall in 5:49. She finished third overall in the series.

Florence Robbins was second girl and 12th overall in exactly six minutes, securing second place in the series overall.

The overall title, though, went to Imogen Beisley of Poole AC, who won all five of the races she contested.

Eliza Blakeway of Wimborne AC was third girl in Race Six in 6:17, finishing 17th overall. That put her fifth in the series, behind Kamila Olateju of Poole Runners in fourth.

Poppy Fulling was fourth girl and 19th overall in 6:18, finishing sixth in the series.

Scarlett Janes crossed the line just a second later in 6:19, taking sixth girl and 21st overall. She finished seventh girl in the series and took the Girl 11 category title.

There was another Bournemouth AC category success for Imogen Davies.

Imogen was ninth girl in Race Six, recording 6:45 and finishing 32nd overall. That put her eighth girl in the series overall, but she had done more than enough to top the Girl 9 category.

In fact, Imogen had won the category in all four of the races she entered.

And so, after six races, the Upton Summer Series finally has its winners.

For some, the final race was merely confirmation of what had already been decided. For others, it was the race that changed everything – deciding who came out on top after six summer evening showings.

That’s exactly the kind of drama you want from a series finale.