BURY AC's Ben Coop completely dominated the South East Lancs Cross Country League senior race at Heaton Park on Saturday afternoon.

Moving away from the field from the gun, he extended his lead to more than a minute, crossing the finish line in 35mins 40secs with the runner-up nowhere in sight.

Triathlon specialists David and Tony Cullen ran strongly to take ninth and 12th place respectively with only 16 seconds separating them. Tony was the first V45 finisher.

Giles Bennett completed the quartet of scoring runners, taking 60th place, and giving the team second place overall.

It is unusual for Bury to compete in this league but the four athletes made quite an impact on the race.

Earlier that day in Heaton Park, Byron Edwards set another new personal best of 16:25 in winning the 5k parkrun.

His strong running over the last 1,000m saw him break away from young club-mate Brandon Quinton, who took third place in 16:47.

Gary Crowshaw (ninth in 18:40) and Anthony Hallahan (19th in 19:30) were also rewarded with new PBs.

Edwards’ weekend was made complete the following day when, competing in the Four Villages Half Marathon, he set another new best performance of 1:13:28 to take eighth place and finish second in the V40 category.

His time takes more than five minutes off his best for the distance and is nine minutes faster than his time for the race in 2018.

He is proving to be a very inspirational men’s team captain.

Not to be outshone, Coop also took to the roads on Sunday, running in the aptly-named Brass Monkey half marathon in York.

He set a new best for the distance of 1:10:13 for second place and the time currently ranks him seventh in the UK. He should break the 70-minute barrier this year.

Further afield, two Bury athletes competed at the international Perche Elite Tour indoor pole vault competition at Nevers in France.

The event draws the best pole vaulters in Europe and more than 200 took part, including current world-record holder, Renaud Lavillenie.

Jay Cook, competing in the first pool, took 19th place with a season’s best of 2.67m, while Hattie Vaughan, competing in the third pool, achieved a best height of 3.47 to take sixth.

She made three attempts at 3.57 to aim for a new lifetime best but just nudged the bar off.

It was a great experience of international competition for the two young athletes arranged by their coach Matt Cullen.