RADCLIFFE Athletic Club’s Neal Emmerson took a great second place in the Blackpool Marathon on Sunday, while the club had three other runners joining the 40,000 in the London Marathon.

Emmerson improved on his fourth place at Blackpool last year after bettering his time by more than two minutes.

He clocked a fine 2hrs 49m 39secs. It was a close battle between the top three with the first runner beating him by 39 seconds and third place behind him by only six seconds.

Emmerson said: “The eventual winner overtook me at 24 miles but went the wrong way due to a marshal error and also picked himself up after a fall, so he deserved his win.”

In London, Ian Warrington was first Radcliffe runner home in 3:08:26, followed by Kris Lee in 3:44:34. Chemane Brier clocked 5:01:03 after complaining of feeling unwell on the way round.

Dave Rushton was the first of 12 Radcliffe runners home in the Bolton 10k, finishing sixth vet-50 and 63rd overall out of 675 in 42:50.