IT was a golden double for Bury AC’s Ben Coop as he retained his Asda Foundation Bury 10k title on Sunday.

Coop looked untroubled as he strode away from the field of more than 1,400 runners, setting a new personal best of 32mins 23secs and finishing more than a minute ahead of the second-placed athlete. The Greenmount primary school teacher modestly turned the attention from his own performance to the breathtaking new marathon world record set by Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge, but Coop is in the form of his life and all augers well for the forthcoming cross-country season.

Josh Birmingham, in only his third year as a senior, produced an excellent new personal best of 35:50 to take sixth place with just a second between him and team-mate Patrick Babb in seventh.

Birmingham goes from strength to strength, with this performance coming only a week after his excellent Great North Run outing where he ducked under 80 minutes and took 81st place in the huge field. Babb’s battling performance was also rewarded with a new personal best.

Luke Harreld was the next Bury AC runner to finish, taking eighth place in 35:54 on his return to fitness following a period of injury.

Young Oliver Donnelly was the first junior athlete to finish, the 15-year-old crossing the line in 19th place overall in a new best time of 37:16.

Giles Bennett and Jack Griffiths took 35th and 36th places, with times of 39:06 and 39:22 respectively.

Gary Crowshaw, in 60th place, was another Bury AC member to set a new best time, recording 40:50. Sophie Whittaker was first under-20 women finisher, in 103rd place overall in 43:10.

Matthew Grice was the next Bury finisher in 122nd place in 44:12.

There was an excellent overall turnout from Bury AC members, with the other finishers including Steven Tobias (45:37), Iestyn Rimmer (46:01), Lauren Booth (46:24), Heledd Rimmer (47:36), Lizzi Cheshire (48:00), Victoria O’Brien (48:34 – PB), Ed Hitchin (48:48), Steve Parker (49:09), Pam Hitchin (51:11), Alison Dale (53:27), Brianne Turner (55:01), Harvey Wiseglass (59:06), Mark Johnson (58:54) and Peter Henderson (61:02).

Men’s team captain Byron Edwards ran the Lancaster Castle Marathon, using the competition as part of his build-up for an attack on his personal best later in the season. Edwards was pleased with his 3:08:04 performance.

This weekend Bury athletes compete in the North of England Road Relay Championships, hosted at the SportCity complex in Manchester.