BURY AC's team finished an impressive third at Saturday’s Youth Development League (Lower) fixture held at Leigh Sports Village.

Despite fielding a number of athletes making their competitive debuts, Bury gained 445.5 points, behind Southport Waterloo and North Cumbria.

For the under-15 boys, Rashaun Currie produced an excellent series of performances, winning the B 100m and hammer events and taking second in the B 200m.

Jay Cook also scored vital points, taking second in the A shot, third in the B long jump and fourth in the B high jump.

Natan Witkowski, Luke Moyle, Jacob Allen and Oliver Rostron also competed in three individual events.

Gil Vaughan, Ben Redmond and Ben Chadwick all competed well for the club and, along with Joseph Critchley, took fifth in the 4x300m relay. Jacob, Natan, Rashaun and Luke had to settle for sixth in the sprint relay.

In the u15 girls' competition some of the best performances for Bury came in the field events with Erin Kenyon (B javelin), Ella Hall (A shot), Holly Crow (B hammer), Alice Lawson (B discus) and Emily Chadwick (A hammer) all winning their events.

Jena Dickinson, Rosella Togo, Grace Gibson, Charlie Ireland and Erin Garroch all had busy afternoons competing in several events. Ella, Rosella, Holly and Jena took sixth in the sprint relay, while the two Erins, Charlie and Grace took fourth in the 4x300m relay. 

Noah Carter and Peter Gardner both competed in four events for the somewhat depleted u13 boys’ team. They were supported by William Merrick, Adam Coxon, Oliver Harford, Finley Collings and Jayden Barlow on the track and field.

Noah teamed up with William, Finley and Adam to take fifth in the 4x100m relay.

The u13 girls’ team was also light in numbers requiring everyone to compete in more than one event.

Mae Gardner, Connie Potts, Nyah Coates and Esther McGrath were the highest point scorers.

Millie Uprichard, Isabel Lawson, Reilly Carson and Devonne Samuels all produced vital performances and the girls' sprint relay team of Connie, Devonne, Isabel and Millie took an excellent third place in their race.

The heat was also on for the five Bury AC members who competed in Sunday’s London Marathon.

The scorching weather together with an ongoing hip injury ruled out any likelihood of Ben Coop performing to his potential.

However, he gamely took part and savoured the experience in his time at London, recording a time of 2hrs 56mins 27secs.

Close behind came men's team captain Byron Edwards. Using his experience to great effect Byron judged his pace carefully and revised his original race plan to take account of the conditions, finishing in 2:57:52.

Making her debut over the distance, Beverley McAuley coped well with the conditions to finish in 4:14:43, followed by Colin Smith (winner of the draw for the club’s guaranteed place in the event) who recorded a time of 5:17:22. Louise Shield finished in 6:00:49.

Five Bury AC runners took part in the Bolton 10k from Leverhulme Park and Ben Jones ran strongly to take fourth place overall in 37:59.

The next Bury finisher was Katie Geelan in 43:35 (first V45) and Victoria O’Brien was pleased with her new personal best of 50:42, holding off Ed Hitchin whose 51:05 brought him home as first V70 finisher. Pam Hitchin completed the course in 54:30.

This weekend Bury AC host the first meeting of the Youth Development League (Upper) track and field competitions for athletes in the under-17 and u 20 age categories.