TWO Radcliffe AC members took on the Chester Marathon on Sunday and finished with only just over a minute between them

Ian Warrington knocked 20 minutes off his marathon time at Manchester earlier in the year when he came home in 3hrs 23mins 32secs, and smashed his target time by six minutes.

But it was only in the closing mile that he managed to catch clubmate Fiona Lynch (V40) who clocked a fine time of 3:24:37, coming fifth in her age category and pleased to be only three minutes off her previous best time.

The marathon is regularly voted as one of the top 10 in the country and started from Chester Racecourse, taking in the historical city before going over into Wales for part of the course.

Dave Ward showed his growing form when he was 28th out of 438 finishers in the Rivington Trail Half Marathon on Saturday. He was one of seven from the club who took on the tough course, undulating to hilly with a climb up Rivington Pike included. Vet-40 Ward clocked 1:35:42, Peter Hunter was 89th with 1:45:28 and Luigi Salzano (V45) ran 1:46.

Vet-50 Tony Holt was next in for the club in 1:50:34 followed by Mauro Rotondi (V45) in 1:58:53. The only woman from Radcliffe taking part was Kath Davies (V45) who clocked 1:59:56, just dipping under two hours with the fastest run she has done so far in the event. Mike Cooke (V45) ran 2:02:06.

An improving Mark Cartwright was pleased with his result in the Tameside Triathlon when he clocked an overall time of 2:10 and took 27th place after the 500m swim, 14.9mile mountain bike ride, and 9.3km run.

It was the sixth year for the all-out sprint triathlon starting in Stalybridge, which took in trails and bridleways. John Andrew recorded 2:14 and Andy Rourke, husband of club member Carly Rourke, also took part.

In the 5k Run The Hill local race at Holcombe on Sunday, raising cash for Bury Cancer Support Centre, new member Lee Turner came home first in 27:19 and Susanne Andrew was second woman in 36:19. Her son Harry was the youngest competitor, beating his mum and clocking 35:58.

Chemane Brier marked her 30th birthday on Saturday by running the 5k Bolton Parkrun and clocking 24:25. And there were two personal best times for Radcliffe runners with Steve Hamer (V50) clocking 23:23 and Caroline Mullineaux running 26:05. First home was John Scarlett in 21:00, putting him in 13th place out of 275 runners and Ken Smith (V55) clocked 22:46.

At Heaton Park Nick Barnes ran 22:37, Sheila Jones (V60) – back in the action after an injury – clocked 24:15. Chris Fletcher produced a new personal best with 24:33 and vet-65 Iain Harris ran 30:49.

At Worsley Wood, there was a personal best for Neal Emmerson with 19:18, putting him 10th out of 273 runners and Vince Ashton (V40) ran the Skipton Parkrun in 24:59.