WE ARE so sorry . . .

That's the message from Race for Life organisers for the 10,000 women who took part in the Southampton event.

It may have been the largest single race in the country - but none of the women taking part was presented with the customary medal they should have received for completing the 5km course.

Now red-faced chiefs at Cancer Research have apologised and explained they are the victims of their own success.

Organiser Karina Morgan said: " At the beginning of the year we estimated that 350,000 women would take part in Race for Life nationally but we have been phenomenally successful in recruiting more women and we ended up with 400,000 women taking part.

"We simply ran out of medals and we very much regret not being able to give them out.

"Personally I was gutted. We had doubled the number of women taking part in Southampton and ended up with the largest race in the UK - so I was really upset we couldn't give out medals."

Karina said she hoped the women who took part would be happy with the gym bag and skincare gifts given out by race sponsors Tesco and Nivea - but she conceded they were no substitute for a medal.

The Southampton event was one of only two in the country to miss out on medals.

Lynda Bailey of the St Monica Infant School team said it was a great shame there were no medals available.

"It's nice to have the medals so people know you have taken part and completed the course.

"Last year we all came into school the day after the race wearing our medals.

"It is the children I feel sorry for - we had one little girl who had lost her grandmother the day before the race.

"She still took part and I'm sure she would have liked a medal," she said.