THERE were some excellent performances from the Bury AC under-11s and under-13s boys and girls in the first Greater Manchester Sportshall League held at the Sports City venue at the end of October.

The u11s boys took third place overall, behind the strong Sale and Stockport teams. Bury were the best performing team in the track events, but the performance in the field allowed Sale and Stockport to edge Bury into third. Elliott Savage showed clean heels to the other athletes on the track, with brother Evan Savage and M Carling also running well. Evan showed his strength by winning the shot putt.

The u11s girls went one better than the boys taking runners-up place behind Wigan. The girls ran very well in the relay with Freya Potts producing a strong performance for the club.

The u13s boys matched the performance of their younger colleagues also taking third place overall. Jerel Livingston and Patrick Clarke produced some really strong performances both on the track and the field. However, as the only Bury competitors in the age group they were always going to struggle to amass the number of points needed to challenge Trafford and East Cheshire.

The team performance of the day came from the u13s girls who won the fixture by a comfortable margin ahead of Sale and Leigh. Given that both of these teams enjoy the benefit of indoor training facilities the performance underlines the quality of the young Bury athletes.

Grace Goodsell secured one track win and two field wins, Daisy Worthington won her two scoring events and Charlotte Farnworth, Erin Kenyon and Katherine Townsend also scored excellent points for the team who were also convincing winners of the relay race.

A small number of Bury’s junior athletes made a big impact in the Bolton Parkrun on Saturday morning, using the 5km time trial to supplement their training for competition. Ben Forrest was the first Bury athlete home with his time of 18.38 being a new personal best for the Bolton course. He was the clear winner of the 11-14 age category.

Patrick Watson was 30 seconds behind and the first male 15-17 runner to finish with Sam Brooks closely following in second. This was both Patrick and Sam’s first run at the Bolton course. Hot on Sam’s heels was Sophie Whittaker, first women finisher and a long way ahead of her nearest 15-17 age category rival. Sophie recorded 19.59 for the course. Other Bury finishers included Lauren Booth (23.04) and young Lucy Alcock (23.51).

Next Saturday sees the third of four Red Rose Cross Country fixtures, with Bolton’s Leverhulme Park providing the venue.