THE Easter weekend proved to be a busy one for Bury AC runners. Good Friday saw the Salford 10k, a traditionally competitive race which this year saw nearly 550 finishers.

Byron Edwards was the first Bury runner to finish, taking 95th place in a new personal best time of 36mins 56secs. Next home was Katie Geelan, producing a fine PB of 38.54 to take third place in her age category and 141st overall. Stephen Hindley finished just outside the first 200, with 41.46. In 270th position was Colin Smith with a 44.35 effort.

Saturday’s Bolton parkrun at Leverhulme Park was a family affair for Bury athletes. First back was Les Smalley in 17th place recording 20.37 for the 5k run. Les’s daughter Jennifer took 99th place with 25.53. Bury coach Nick Rimmer could not match the pace of his children Iestyn and Heledd. Nick took 77th place out of field of 307 runners, recording 24.48. Iestyn’s 22.48 gave him 41st place, whilst sister Heledd finished in 75th with 24.41. Dave Caroll took 32nd place recording 22.10, which was more than two minutes faster than his previous week’s run.

The Heaton Park parkrun saw a smaller number of Bury runners in the field of 568 finishers. Edwards consolidated his Salford 10k run with a strong fifth-placed finish in 18.26. Young Oliver Donnelly produced a new personal best in 29th place with 20.32. Further down the field, Lizzie Cheshire time of 24.02 saw her claim 122nd place, while Dave Flood finished 297th in 28.32.

Bury had one competitor in the Pendle Hill senior men’s fell race on Saturday. Duncan Forrest took 166th place recording 49.28 for the tough 7.3km course. The club had two athletes competing in the junior races.

In the under-18s race, Sophie Whittaker finished 19th overall and was the second female finisher with a time of 35.13.

In the under-14s race, Ben Forrest took an excellent fifth place in 18.40. The age groupings for fell races meant that both Sophie and Ben were competing against athletes more than a year older than themselves and their performances are indicative of the talent both athletes possess and of the hard work they are putting into their training.

The previous weekend saw the first in the series of the M60 Young Athletes Quad Kids events at the Salford Met track at Winton.

Bury produced a number of team and individual medal winning performances. In the under-9s competition, athletes tested themselves over a 50-metre sprint, a 400-metre run, a standing long jump and a howler throw.

Charlie Fawcett scored a total of 183 points across the events, with Oliver Horford close behind on 160 points. Oliver was the fastest overall in both of the runs. Isabel Lawson (148 points) and Leah Hancock (131 points) were the top performers for the girls.

In the under-11s competition, athletes faced a 75-metre sprint, 600-metre run, long jump and howler throw. Evan Savage was the top points-scorer for the boys with 168 points, just ahead of brother Elliot (155 points) and James Bluer (140 points). Freya Potts and Erin Garroch both scored 111 points to top the girls' charts, with Tess Fordham close behind with 109.