TWO Bury AC runners were in the medals at the Greater Manchester Cross Country Championships at Manchester’s Boggart Hole Clough with Ben Coop, in the senior men’s race, and Freya Potts, in the under-15 girl’s race both winning bronze.

Coop was disappointed not to have been able to retain the county title he won 12 months ago, but he should nonetheless be immensely proud of his achievement.

The first race of the day was the u13 boys with Sam Howard first Bury finisher in 18th, followed by Adam Warren (22nd), Thomas Donnelly (23rd), Ben Gardner (26th), Finley Collins (28th) and Jayden Barlow (34th). The Bury A team took sixth place with 63 points.

Next came the u13 girls with Emily Purdy taking an excellent seventh place. Chloe Ardin was 16th, Lola Potts 19th, Lucy Hill 21st and Sophie Lathom 33rd, while the A team took fourth place just four points behind third-placed Stockport B team.

The u15 girls were led home by Freya Potts, underlining her reputation as one of the top runners in the county by taking third place and a certain selection for the county team.

Reilly Carson was the next Bury finisher in 24th, with Grace Gibson in 28th and Summer Whitfield 30th. The girls' team finished fifth.

There were no Bury runners in the u15 boys' and u17 men’s races, but in the u17 women’s race Charlotte Speakman-Farnworth took 10th place with Charlie Ireland in 19th and Bolanje Akinnayajo 20th. The team took fourth place overall.

Heledd Rimmer was the only Bury athlete in the u20 women’s race, running strongly to take fourth place.

Hannah Price produced her usual strong run to take an excellent ninth place in the senior women’s race, with Rachel Marshall the next local finisher in 13th and Sarah Thomas in 21st. Women’s team captain Lizzi Cheshire ran well to take 32nd. Similar to the u13 girls, the women’s team missed out on third team place by just four points.

Gavin Hill, from Sale, was the clear winner in the senior men’s race with Coop just losing out in the battle for silver to Horwich’s James Scott-Farrington.

Josh Birmingham ran really well to take eighth place in what has been a brilliant 2019 for the young man.

Patrick Babb produced a strong run to take 28th with Ben Thompson, on his Bury debut, in 52nd, Giles Bennett in 54th and Richard Anderson 62nd. The Bury team took fifth place.

The following day, in much kinder conditions, four of Bury’s u17 athletes competed in the Sale Indoor meeting at SportCity.

David Vaughan produced his first sub-40 300m with a new best of 39.99secs.

Scarlet Hamilton ran her 300 in 45.86 but went on to set new bests in the 60m hurdles (10.76) and shot put (7.04m).

Natan Witkowski set new bests in the 60m hurdles (9.86) and pole vault (2.65) and Ella Hall took second in the shot with a new lifetime best of 10.14.