A very wet Heaton Park was the venue for the second South East Lancashire Cross Country League fixture of the season on Saturday, writes Mark Granby.

Once again, the stand-out performance of the series of races came from Bury AC’s Ethan Statham who was the runaway winner of the under 11s boys race. He crossed the line 26 seconds ahead of the runner-up and 75 seconds ahead of the third placed athlete.

Rocco Hunter took sixth place and with Isaac Cullen just behind in seventh it gave Bury second team. The club’s other finishers were James Tallentire (14th) and Ronan Parker (23rd). The under 11s girls also took second team; the scoring athletes were Isla Taylor (fourth), Katherine Wolstenholme (fifth) and Mylah Collier (10th). The other finishers were Niamh Murray (11th), Violette Overlunde (16th), Myla Bryan (17th), Sophie Straffon-Finch (26th) and Evelyn McDonald (31st).

In the under 1s3 boys race the Bury trio of Jahub Purzycki in fifth, Daniel Taylor in tenth and Noah Hallworth in 17th took third place. There was a superb win for the under 13 girls team. Lucy Dent showed she is racing back into form taking second place, Agatha Wragg was fourth and Ella Straffon-Finch took 13th. The other Bury athlete in the race was Lydia Worsley (17th).

In the under 15s races Faye Gribbin produced her best run of the season to win by 25 seconds. Oscar Armstrong ran strongly in the boys race to take eighth. In the senior men’s race, Martin Clark ran superbly to take third place. In the ladies race, Afroditi Kalambouka finished in 31st place.

Bury’s Loughborough based combined events stars Jay Cook and Rosella Togo competed in the Loughborough Indoor competition over the weekend. Jay set new personal bests in the 60m hurdles (9.04) winning his heat and final and in the shot, where he won his final with 13.33. He also took third in the long jump with 5.79. Rosella also set a new PB in the shot, her 11.49 winning the competition. She also took third in the high jump with 1.47.

On Sunday, Ben Coop competed in the Stockport 10 mile road race. He battled the wind and the rain to take a superb third place in a time of 52.58.

Three of Bury’s younger combined event specialists competed in the Manchester Indoor meeting. Evie Elliott set a new personal best of 8.50 taking fifth in her heat in the under 17 60m. She set a further PB in the 60m hurdles taking second in 9.40. Oliver Cooper also set a PB of 8.37 taking second in his under 15 60m heat and went on to set another best in his 60m hurdles race, taking third in 9.88 and made it three out of three setting a new PB of 43.7 taking second in his 300m race. Jemima Miles won her under 17 60m hurdles race in a new PB of 9.39.