BRITAIN'S second fastest female marathon runner of all time Mara Yamauchi visited Cornwall over the weekend to pass her knowledge onto athletes in the county.

Her trip was organised on behalf of the Duchy Athletics Network by Cornwall AC member and national runner Emma Stepto with more than 100 amateur marathon enthusiasts going to Hayle RFC to hear a presentation from Yamauchi on Friday.

The following day, she attended the athletics track at Carn Brea to put do training with a group of local runners before visiting the At Your Pace shop in Helston.

During her professional career, the 41-year-old represented Team GB at several international events including the Commonwealth Games, where she won the 10,000m bronze in 2006, Olympics and World Championships.

She also won the women's 2008 Osaka Marathon in Japan and her personal best of 2:23:12 set in London is the second fastest over 26.2 miles by a British female, only beaten by former World Champion and current world record holder Paula Radcliffe.

Reflecting on her visit, Yamauchi said: "It was terrific being able to meet members of the running community in Cornwall.

"I gave a talk in Hayle about the marathon, including training, nutrition, rest and recovery and strength and conditioning and it was great to have so many people there, armed with lots of good questions.

"We followed this up with a training session on the track which members of several different clubs attended and we ran intervals to time rather than distance which several runners said they enjoyed as it took away the pressure of having to hit certain times."

Yamauchi, who finished second in the 2009 London Marathon, also praised the work done in the county to promote the sport and also paid tribute to the efforts of At Your Pace shop owner Kay Kershaw, who set up the store after her own career was cut short by bowel and spinal problems.

"It was clear that Cornwall has a really thriving running community and the various clubs are working well together to share expertise and training tips," she said.

"I was so inspired meeting Kay, who has built up her business from scratch despite serious illness and enthusiastically supports local runners and events."

Also supporting the visit were England Athletics and Anneliese Shanning, the club and coach support officer for Cornwall.