Organisers of the Oxford Town and Gown fun run were bemused when Alison Barry crossed the finishing line in an impressive 34 minutes 18 seconds.

Even after running a 10km road race the Headington Road Runner - the first woman home - looked a little ragged.

But it took the officials a while to work out why.

The reason was Ms Barry did not take part in the run - she gave her race number to an unnamed man instead.

But organisers only cottoned on to the error when second-placed woman Amy Chalk spoke up moments before the prizes were handed out.

'Ms Barry' was disqualified after the mix-up was resolved, but event organisers said the mistake was a genuine error rather than anything more suspicious.

Full list of finishers and times

See a gallery of pictures from the Town and Gown

This year 3,500 runners took part in the annual race from Norham Gardens to the University Parks in aid of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign.

Up to £60,000 may have been raised through sponsorship and donations.

Conditions were opposite to last year and temperatures nudged 70F (21C) as the elite runners finished the race.

However, paramedics reported no serious injuries or problems caused by heat exhaustion.

The most serious incident was an elderly spectator who was hit by second-placed man Ben Hope in Carfax while trying to cross the road.

The men's race was won by Ceri Rees, of Poole Runners, in 31 minutes 50 seconds with Mr Hope and Jeremy Bradley finishing second and third.

Amy Chalk was crowned women's champion with a time of 35 minutes 32 seconds, beating Emma Phillips and Jude Craft into second and third place respectively.

Speaking about the disqualified woman, Ian Hale said: "It happens when either a male or female can't run and rather than lose their money they pass their number on to someone they know.

"In this particular instance the female passed it on to a male colleague - and he was the first woman home."

Tracey Scarlett and Kevin Game ran the entire race clutching Steve - a giant bunny rabbit - in aid of Sobell House hospice.

Mr Game said: "It was just like wearing fur coat.

"We ran for Sobell House because every year we need constant donations to keep the work going - and we got a lot of support on the way round.

"It wasn't the lightest bunny in the world and he kept head-butting us."

Diego Varela and Greg Aussedad dressed up as women - and said they attracted a lot of male attention.

Mr Varela said: "It was beautiful - I really liked the fact we went through the city centre.

"We dressed as women because we wanted to do something original.

"Also it was a motivator for us because people were saying 'come on ladies' and at 5km it was good to have a push.

"There was a 60 year old guy who almost had a heart attack - I think it was a while since he had seen something like that."

A junior fun run was held before the main race, which was won by Melissa Hawtin with Theo Bromfield and Jack Maloney finishing second and third.

The main bulk of the field crossed the line at the Parks from 11am onwards, with hundreds of spectators lining the finishing straight to cheer on friends and family.

Tim Munday and Josie Tomkins ran wearing Hawaiian-style hula skirts.

Ms Tomkins said: "I saw somebody do the marathon and he said if you do it in fancy dress it's so much better.

"And it was brilliant - we had loads of support all the way round."

*Abingdon marathon was blighted last year by a similar number change problem.

Winner Colin Paton, from British Army's Athletic Association, had not entered but was given the number of fellow soldier Carl Povey when he pulled out. Mr Paton was disqualified for not entering the race officially.