MO Farah may have dominated the headlines after winning the inaugural Vitality Big Half race in London on Sunday, but there was a remarkable Aldershot, Farnham & District one-two in the women’s event, with winner Charlotte Purdue being followed home by Lily Partridge.

Organised by the London Marathon, the 13.1-mile half marathon took the runners through the boroughs of Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham to the finish in Greenwich.

Purdue, Partridge and Aly Dixon were soon dictating the pace of the elite women’s race in distinctly chilly conditions and the trio were still out in front at the ten-mile mark.

In the later stages, it became a two-horse race between the AFD clubmates. Purdue, who has been training at altitude in Australia, showed real pace in the final mile to open up a gap on Partridge and was over 30 seconds clear coming into the final stretch. She took the tape in 70mins 29secs – a personal best by one whole minute.

Partridge crossed the line in 71-06, exactly the same time as her Seville course record set in January, and with Dixon falling back, Charlotte Arter came through to take third place in a PB 71-35.

Three Commonwealth Games runners were next to finish, Sonia Samuels taking fourth in 72-57, Caryl Jones fifth in 73-28 and Dixon sixth in 73-34.

The first three were all well under the 75mins qualifying mark for the World Half Marathon.

“I felt good for the first fifteen kilometres and didn’t want to slow down,” said Purdue afterwards. “I knew I was on for a good time and wanted to keep going. I found the cobbles challenging to run on, but I don’t think it slowed me down. It was good preparation for the London Marathon.”

Purdue, Partridge and Arter also take gold, silver and bronze in the British Half Marathon Championships which were held in conjunction.

Mo Farah, running the race as part of his preparation for the London Marathon, outsprinted Daniel Wanjiru of Kenya to win in 61mins 40secs.

Wanjiru, who won last year’s London Marathon, was just three seconds behind in 61-43 and Scotland’s Callum Hawkins took third place in 61-45.

Multi Paralympic gold medallist David Weir finished second to Marcel Hug of Switzerland in the elite men’s wheelchair race. Manuela Schär made it a Swiss double by taking the women’s title.