BURY Athletic Club runners Caitlin Cole and Katrina Conroy have been picked to compete for the North West in the British Colleges National Cross Country Championships in Bath after strong performances in the regional championships at Witton Park in Blackburn.

Cole finished fourth in the under-18s girls event, closely followed by Conroy, who came in eighth.

Both girls were competing for Holy Cross College, as were Bury AC athletes Dean Walmersley and Josh Gallagher, who finished 16th and 18th respectively in the U18s boys event. It’s been a busy few weeks for the club’s athletes, with a host of them running personal bests in events across the country.

Grace Conroy competed for Edinburgh University in the British Universities Indoor Athletics Championships in Sheffield, running in both the 800m and 400m events. She finished with a season’s best time of 2mins 32.08 secs in the 800m and 68.44 secs in the 400m.

Mark Shakeshaft took second place in The Trotters five mile race at Smithills in Bolton, running a personal best time of 28:24.

John Conroy competed in the Northern Veterans Cross Country Championships in Warrington, finishing in 20th position overall and third place in the over 50 category, completing the 10km course in 46:59.

Luke Harreld was the overall winner in the Heaton Park 5km, finishing in a time of 17:09, while both Jennifer Smalley (22:58) and Sophie Sasimowicz (23:40) ran personal bests in the women’s race, finishing seventh and 11th respectively.

Bury AC’s sprinters showed good early season indoor form in the Manchester Open at SportCity.

Marvin Edwards was just outside his personal best for 60 metres, with runs of 7.38 and 7.41, and two-hundreths of a second outside his best in the 200 metres, running 23.86.

Matt Elkin recorded a time of 7.52 to win his 60 metres heat.