HELEDD Rimmer certainly had a spring in her step after meeting Olympic long jump champion Greg Rutherford during the Great Manchester Games last weekend.

The young athlete was one of a host of Bury Athletic Club members who helped in Friday's event in Deansgate and Albert Square, where they met Rutherford and Team GB's golden girl Jessica Ennis-Hill.

After playing a key role behind the scenes, they went on to put in some excellent performances in the mile-and-a-half Junior Run around Sportcity on Saturday.

Charlotte Farnworth finished on the podium after coming third in her race in 8mins 50secs, while Marcus Dey was fourth in the senior boys' event, finishing just four seconds behind the winner in a time of 7:08.

Oliver Horford was 12th in 9:57, while Cian Donnelly and Lauren Entwistle clocked times of 11:46 and 12:13, respectively.

Club member Warren Yates supported the races as bike rider, leading the young athletes around the course.

Bury had two members compete in the elite women's 10k race on the Sunday, which was won by world 5,000m record holder Turinesh Dibaba, from Ethiopia.

Sophie Whittaker ran strongly to take 25th place in 40:10, while Katie Geelan finished a minute further back in 26th place.

Club captain Byron Edwards was the first Bury AC runner to finish the mass event, which was won by Ethiopian world record holder Kenenisa Bekele.

Edwards just missed out on a place in the overall top 100 after clocking 37:00, but his time him ninth place in the V40 category.

Giles Bennett was next Bury finisher in 38:56, which earned him seventh place in the V45 category, while Jenny Yates broke her personal best to claim fifth in the F50 category in a time of 44:24.

And Lauren Booth celebrated her 18th birthday with a strong run of 47:26 to finish sixth in the under-20s.

Other Bury AC finishers in the Great Manchester Run 10k: Ben Jones 43:05, Iestyn Rimmer 43:40, Paul Williams 48:37, Alison Dale 49:46, Lisa Carter 51:20, Brianne Turner 55:29, Holly Bamford 59:01, Emma Dawson 64:14.

Bury’s younger athletes competing in the UK Youth Development League on Saturday at Connahs Quay.

There were three stand-out performances in the field events. Jerel Livingston’s leap of 4.92m in the long jump put him third in the UK rankings in his age group, while Grace Goodsell qualified for the English Schools Championships with a jump of 5.07m.

In the high jump, Patrick Clarke improved his personal best by 14cm to make a height of 1.57m.

Bury's young athletes will be competing in the YDL upper age group fixture at Blackburn on Sunday and at the Trafford Medal Meeting on Bank Holiday Monday.