Bury athletes competed at the Greater Manchester Cross Country Championships held at Wythenshawe Park on Saturday.

In the under-13 girls’ race Lucy Dent produced another strong run to take 12th place with team-mate Agatha Wragg 13 seconds behind her in 15th. Oscar Armstrong ran well to take 29th place in the U15 boys’ race. Caitlyn Johnston was forced to pull out in the senior women’s race, but Martin Clark produced another strong run in the senior men’s race, taking 10th place and notching up a victory over club-mate Ben Coop who finished just nine seconds behind Clark in 11th. Paul Johnston was Bury’s other competitor, taking 42nd.

There were some excellent performances from Bury runners in the Heaton Parkrun. Conor Wilkinson was second in 17mins 29secs, with Byron Edwards in fourth (17:38), just one second ahead of fifth-placed Paul Marshall. Tony Cullen took 14th (18:54) and hot on his heels was 10-year-old Ethan Statham making his debut at the event. He took 42 seconds off the previous fastest time from a 10-year-old with 18:55. Rob Fowler paced Ethan around the course as there is a requirement for U11s to run within arm’s length of an accompanying adult. Alex Leach set a new personal best of 20:00 to take 26th place. Abigail Warburton was fastest woman finisher in a new PB of 18:51. Sarah Flett was second woman, also setting a new PB of 20:53.

The following day, in the second Sale Harriers Manchester Indoor meeting of the season at SportCity, there were some excellent performances from Bury athletes. Cream of the crop was Oliver Cooper who produced a new PB in the pole vault of 3.25m. As well as winning the competition, the vault moves him up to seventh in the UK in the U15 boys’ rankings. Jemima Miles bounced back from an illness to win her heat of the U17 women’s 60m hurdles in a new PB of 9.29, while team-mate Evie Elliott took third, her time of 9.43 just three hundredths off her PB. Jay Cook, back home from Loughborough for the holidays, took second in his U20 men’s 60m hurdles with 9.15 and fifth in his flat 60m race in a season’s best of 7.94. Afroditi Kalambouka made her indoor debut and set PBs of 11.94 in the 60m and 3m in the long jump.