BURY AC’s Under-11s were in fine form at the South East Lancs Cross Country League at Heaton Park on Saturday with Lucy Dent finishing second in her girls’ race and leading the team to third overall.

The other scoring runners were Erin Hudson (15th) and Isabella Robinson (20th), with Layla Halton in 37th.

In the boys’ race, Ethan Statham took an excellent third place and with Daniel Taylor in 12th and Max Sayers in 14th the boys sealed third team position.

Edison Marsden was Bury’s only competitor in the under-13s race, placing seventh, and Afroditi Kalambouka took 32nd in the senior women’s race.

Earlier in the day in Heaton Park, there were two personal bests in the parkrun.

Jack Griffiths took fifth place, setting a new best of 16mins 57secs and Matt Garside placed ninth with a new PB of 17:39.

The other Bury finishers included Byron Edwards, returning from injury with 18:17, and Sarah Thomas (20:09) and father Brian Thomas (21:31).

Sunday was a day of lifetime-best performances for Bury athletes.

At the Manchester Indoor meeting at SportCity there was a string of new bests in the 60m sprint races.

Jay Cook took fifth in his heat in 8.02, Rosella Togo was fourth in her heat (8.06), Joshua Kantor came fourth in his race (8.20), Mae Gardner was seventh (8.41) and Evie Elliott finished fifth in her race (8.56).

There was a season’s best of 7.62 for Rashaun Currie (sixth) and Blessing Idoko won her race (8.14), missing her best by only two hundredths of a second.

In the 300m races there were further bests for Cook and Togo, placing second and first in their respective races with 41.54 and 41.99.

Anna Gisbourne took second in her heat with 41.32 and Idoko took third with 45.37.

Gisbourne was back on the track for the 600m and dominated the race from start to finish, setting a new lifetime best of 1:36.26 - a time that places her second in the UK in her u17 age group.

In the 60m hurdles, Cook set another PB, taking second in 9.36 and holding off fellow combined event specialist Natan Witkowski, who took third in a new best of 9.44.

Witkowski went on to take third in the pole vault (3.00) and 12th in the long jump (5.83).

Aintree Racecourse hosted the ‘Run Through’ event and in the 10k race Paul Johnston set a new lifetime best of 36:07 to take sixth overall and was winner of the V40 category.

Rachel Marshall smashed her previous best for the distance, finishing second women finisher and winning the V40 category in 38:46.

In the half marathon, Luke Harreld took an impressive seventh place and was third V35 in 1:15:46, only 20 seconds outside his best ever for the distance.

The club hosted its Christmas handicap event at the Market Street track with races over one mile and 150m.

In the mile event, headteacher John Dent took advantage of the handicap and outsprinted Beverley McAuley to win the prestigious Woodward Tankard.

In the 150m there was an impressive win for Jayden Samuels with a great turnout from seniors and juniors alike.