A NEW chapter in the history of Bury AC was written by the senior men’s A team at Sunday’s Northern Road Relay championships.

The team finished 32nd out of the 140 starting teams, but when some of the larger clubs' B teams were subtracted from the final results, Bury's men were 24th club and as a consequence they secured a place in the National Road Relay Championships for the first time this century.

In the past Bury have struggled to field more than one team in the Northern championships but under the leadership of team captain Byron Edwards they fielded three complete teams this year, with the B team taking 84th place and the C team 127th out of a record starting line-up of 140 teams.

The individual times for the 6.4k course were: A team – Ben Coop (21mins 3secs), David Cullen (22:54), Josh Birmingham (23:14), Patrick Babb (23:18), Luke Harreld (22:49) and Jim Ardin (22:13); B team – Paul Johnston (24:39), Giles Bennett (25:47), Jack Griffiths (24:42), Gary Crowshaw (25:27), Mark Skelton (26:29) and Byron Edwards (23:23); C team – Anthony Hallahan (28:44), Mark Granby (28:07), Steve Parker (30:51), Irfan Qureshi (30:02), Alison Dale (32:26) and Roger Morley (31:58).

Special mention should be made of Edwards who, having competed in the Macclesfield half marathon in the morning where he finished 10th in 1:23:11, stepped into the B team at the last minute to cover for an athlete who did not turn up and still returned the team’s fastest leg.

The senior women fielded two teams, with the A team finishing 45th and the B team 80th out of the 108 starting teams.

Individual times for the 5.4k course were: A team – Caitlin Cole (24:22), Katie Geelan (25:13), Katrina Conroy (25:48) and Nicola Harland (27:30); B team – Lizzi Cheshire (28:54), Bev Mcauley (28:22), Victoria O’Brien (28:36) and Pam Hitchin (29:46).

In the junior athletes championships there were some good results from the Bury teams.

The under-13 girls' team took an excellent 13th place. Reilly Carson ran the first leg in 14:11, handing over to Summer Whitfield who covered her leg in 15:00 and she passed on to Connie Potts in 18th place.

Connie ran a strong leg of 14:21 to move the team up five places.

The u13 boys' team of Oliver Horford (14:30), Noah Carter (14:59) and Albert Cottam (16:46) took 34th place.

The u15 girls' A team took 30th place with the B team in 40th.

Individual times for the 3.1k course were: A team – Grace Gibson (14:54), Erin Kenyon (15:43) and Freya Potts (13:12); B team – Erin Garroch (15:35), Holly Crow (15:58) and Charlie Ireland (16:39).

Elsewhere, multi-eventer Jena Dickinson made the long journey up to Jarrow to compete in the North East Pentathlon competition.

It was worth the trip as she set a new personal best with an impressive 2,302 points.