BURY Athletic Club got 2015 off to a medal winning start with several strong performances at the Greater Manchester Cross-Country Championships held at Boggart Hole Clough on Saturday.

The medal winning started in the first race of the day when Ben Forrest raced to the front of the field in the the under-13 boys’ championship. Forrest moved clear of his opposition to secure a convincing victory by 20 seconds.

Behind Forrest, Francis Woodcock produced a trademark strong second half to move through from fifth place to take the bronze medal, missing out on silver by just two seconds.

With Oliver Donnelly in 35th, the team missed out on a medal by one point.

Bury’s other individual medal came in the under-20 men’s race. Benn Heywood has been in good form all winter and reinforced this with a strong run in difficult conditions to take third place. In the same race, while Rob Granby took eighth place.

The final medal was a silver for the u17 women’s team. Sophie Whittaker led the team home with fourth place and was superbly supported by Lauren Booth in ninth and Eleanor Boyle in 10th.

Christie Cook was another to produce a strong run, taking sixth place in the under-20 women’s event.

In the senior women’s event, Katie Buckley ran a well-paced and judged race to take an excellent fourth place, while Siobhan Guy took 22nd place.

Bury’s u13 girls found the conditions very difficult with Ellie Carter 33rd, Harriet Vaughan 40th, Daisy Worthington 43rd and Heledd Rimmer 45th. George Yates was the first Bury athlete home in the u15 boys’ race, never recovering from a poor start to take 15th, with Patrick Watson 17th, Alex Bennett 24th, Declan Guy 25th and Jack Smith 27th.

Despite suffering from illness, Lucy Alcock ran strongly to take 18th place in the u15 girls’ race, with Melissa Thompson 31st. Harry Stainton was another to produce a strong performance, finishing 10th in the u17 men’s race, in which Iestyn Rimmer was 17th. By the time the senior men competed, course conditions were truly horrendous – Ben Coop took 36th place and Giles Bennett 64th.

The championships form the main selection event for the Greater Manchester team to compete in the season ending Inter Counties Championships and the results mean that Bury will be well represented in this prestigious event.