ON Sunday five Bury AC senior athletes raced the highly competitive Abbey Dash 10k in Leeds.

First Bury finisher was Ben Coop in 182nd place in a time of 33mins 51secs, nine seconds faster than he ran it in 2016.

Only two seconds separated Josh Birmingham and Jonny Evans, recording 35:15 and 35:17, respectively – personal bests for both of them – as they improve race by race.

Gary Crowshaw was another athlete to set a new lifetime best with his 39.00 time, but Sophie Whittaker was a little off her best, covering the course in 42.09.

All the Bury athletes were well to the fore in a field of more than 7,000 starters.

The previous day saw eight members join in the 5k Heaton Park parkrun.

Ollie Makinson was first to cross the line in 16.31, just one second off his personal best for the course.

Chasing him all the way round was Luke Harreld, who took second place in 16.35, amazingly also just one second slower than his best.

In fourth was 15-year-old Brandon Quinton, with his time of 16.43 slicing eight seconds off his previous best for the course.

Katie Geelan showed she is returning to form nicely, with her 19.48 giving her the first woman finisher place and increasing her tally of victories in the event to 34.

The other Bury finishers included Lizzi Cheshire (22.03), Nicola Harland (22.46), Vicky O’Brien (24.28) and Pam Hitchin (24.36).

Much further afield, men’s team captain Byron Edwards competed in the New York City Marathon.

New York is one of the really iconic city marathons and was Hugh Brasher’s inspiration for establishing the London Marathon back in 1981.

Having recently set a new personal best for the distance it was always Edwards’ intention to enjoy the experience rather than race it.

Consequently he ran an intelligent pace, completing the course in 3:03.49.

He reached the halfway point in 1:32.39, averaging just outside seven-minute mile pace (7.03) but then gradually increased the pace and covered the second half in 1:31.10, an average of 6:57 per mile.

Colin Smith was the other Bury athlete in the field, completing the course in 3:55.05.

Next week the club will be well represented in the second Red Rose Cross Country League fixture at Bolton’s Leverhulme Park.