BURY AC athletes returned to formal competitions with a flurry of best performances over the weekend.

On Saturday evening, the Podium 5k road race series recommenced on the fast cycle track at Barrowford. In adherence with national guidance the numbers in each race were limited and this had an impact on the overall numbers competing but what was lost in quantity was more than made up for in quality.

In the elite men’s race, the British record was smashed by Marc Scott from Cambridge and Coleridge who scorched around the course in 13mins 20secs to take a massive seven seconds off the previous record.

In the B race, Ben Coop ran brilliantly to break the 15 minute barrier for the first time. His 14.57 performance secured him 15th place in the high quality race and took nine seconds off his previous personal best.

Byron Edwards and Andy Mellor competed in the D race. Edwards took an excellent third place and missed beating his personal best by just a tantalising second, his time of 16.00 securing him the honour of being the fastest in the V45 age category of the day. Mellor took tenth place and his 16.21 performance bettered his previous best for the distance by 10 seconds.

David Vaughan also returned to competition at the Trafford open track and field meeting on the Saturday. He set a season’s best performance of 5.11 in the long jump to take third place.

In the triple jump competition he took fourth place with 11.95 off a shortened run up as he works on developing his technique. The previous weekend at Trafford, Vaughan finished in second place in his race in a new personal best of 24.78.

Next weekend he will test himself for the first time over 100m.