GOOD Friday’s Salford 10k race was the fourth competition in the Bury AC senior’s grand prix series of races and first home in 16th place in the quality field was Ben Coop, covering the relatively flat and fast course in 32mins 52secs.

After a gap, there was a flurry of Bury finishers with Byron Edwards in 61st in 35:32, followed by Patrick Babb in 35:46 for 65th and then Luke Harreld was 68th in 36:00.

Next came 16-year-old Oliver Donnelly who was 69th overall but finished as the second male junior athlete and was given a chip time of 35:59 taking more than a minute off his previous best time for the distance.

Gary Crowshaw was the next Bury finisher with 38:41 followed by Paul Johnston in 39:04 and Giles Bennett in 39:43.

Hannah Price set a new best for the distance of 40:11 and finished 11th in the women’s race. Katie Geelan finished third F45 in 41:16 followed by Lizzi Cheshire (45:45), Katrina Conroy (46:28) and Andrew Worthington (46:54). Heledd Rimmer was third female junior athlete (48:09) and had the satisfaction of beating brother Iestyn (49:18).

The other Bury finishers included Matthew Garside (48:59), Susan Wheeldon-Gorst (50:05) and Alison Dale (52:22).

The race now puts Patrick Babb in the overall lead in the men’s grand prix standings, with Josh Birmingham currently second and Luke Harreld in third.

In the ladies' competition, Katie Geelan leads from Lizzi Cheshire with Hannah Price in third. The next race in the series is the Hollingworth Lake 5k on May 8.

Several Bury athletes who competed in the previous weekend's Wigan Harriers open meeting were rewarded with personal-best performances.

In the under-13 girls' 75 metres there were new bests for Anna Gisbourne (first in 11s) and Blessing Idoko (third in 11.7).

The 100m saw a huge Gardner family turnout with Mae recording 14.5 in the u15s, Peter and Ben 15.2 and 15.6 respectively in the u13s and then Diane producing a 16.0 effort in the senior women’s race.

The other Bury performances in the 100m included Oliver Horford (15.5), Millie Uprichard (14.6) and Kate Gisbourne (16.5).

In the 150m event, Anna Gisbourne took third in a new PB of 22.2, while Grace Gibson took fifth in her 300m race in 46.8.

In the middle distance events, u17s David Vaughan and Jacob Allen both set new bests of 2:17.8 and 2:22.0, respectively, in the 800m.

Anna Gisbourne won the 800m in a season’s best of 2:48.9.

Lola Potts took third in her 1200m race in 4:46.8 and in the 1500m Freya Potts took fourth (5:10.1 – season's best) and Reilly Carson eighth (5:46.0 PB).

In the 75m hurdles, Nyah Coates was third (15.0), while Peter and Ben Gardner took second and third in their races with 15.9 and 16.1 respectively.

In the field events there were PBs for Blessing Idoko (high jump 1.15 and long jump 2.95), Nyah Coates (long jump 3.49), Ben Gardner (long jump 3.10), Emily Purdy (long jump 3.30), Millie Uprichard (hammer 22.30), Mae Gardner (hammer 19.88) and David Vaughan (triple jump 11.30).

Oliver Horford and Peter Gardner set season's bests in the long jump of 3.34 and 3.13, respectively, as did Alison Dale in the hammer (13.96). Xenia Sawkulycz made her Bury debut with 6.10 in the shot and 19.20 in the discus.

Diane Gardner and Katie Gisbourne also made field events debuts in the hammer, producing best throws of 16.35 and 13.90 respectively.

On the evening of Wednesday, May 15 Bury will be hosting a 10,000 metre track race.

Entry details can be found on the SportSoft website (https://www.race-results.co.uk) and online entries may be made.