BURY AC's Patrick Babb, made his marathon debut in the Greater Manchester Marathon on Sunday and was the first of five club members home in an impressive 2hrs 47mins 37secs, giving him 112th place out of the field of more than 9,500 starters.

Next to finish was Byron Edwards, using the Manchester race as a training run in preparation for the London Marathon on April 22.

He covered the course in 3:11:33, maintaining an even and comfortable pace throughout.

Irfan Qureshi was Bury’s next finisher, breaking the four-hour barrier with a time of 3:56:59, and he was 278th finisher in the MV50 age category.

Coach Ali O’Brien completed the course in 4:37:36 on her debut over the distance, while Natasha McDonald, another of Bury’s coaching team, was forced to pull out of the race at the 19-mile mark with an injury.

Sophie Whittaker competed in her first 10-mile race last weekend, running in the Cathedral to Castle multi-terrain event.

She finished 15th overall and was second woman in a time of 1:06:31.

Next week is the English Road Racing Association relays and junior 5k championships and Brandon Quinton will be representing Bury in the under-15s' 5k event.