BURY AC’s senior women were the stars of the day in the first race of the series in the Red Rose Cross Country League last Saturday.

Hannah Price ran brilliantly to take second place, and with Caitlin Cole (seventh), Katie Geelan (eighth) and Rachel Marshall (12th) they were convincing winners in the team competition.

The senior men’s team was missing some key personnel, but nevertheless the sextet of scorers, led by Luke Harreld in 19th place, took fourth place.

Harreld finished strongly and was supported by Patrick Babb (28th), Dave Cullen (30th), Jack Griffiths (36th), Paul Johnston (39th) and Tony Cullen (40th).

The under-13 girls' trio of Chloe Ardin (seventh), Lucy Hill (11th) and Lola Potts (13th) took second team spot, with the boys' trio of Thomas Donnelly (13th), Sam Howard (15th) and Adam Warren (17th) claiming fourth team place.

This position was matched by the u17 women’s trio of Charlotte Speakman-Farnworth (sixth), Kate Lilley (13th) and Amy Garroch (20th).

Jacob Allen was the only Bury runner in the u17 men’s race and finished 18th.

Freya Potts had an outstanding run in the u15 girls' race claiming an excellent second place. There was then quite a gap to the other two scorers; Reilly Carson (28th) and Grace Gibson (33rd), giving the team fifth place.

The boys' team had to settle for sixth place with Nathan Ardin (21st), Matthew Lowe (30th) and Joe Hamer (34th) the scoring athletes.

The u11s found it a hard experience with the boys' scoring trio of Charlie Eales, Edison Marsden and Oliver Cooper taking seventh place, while the girls' trio of Tia Buckley, Lucy Dent and Isabel Robinson were eighth.

Elsewhere, Ben Coop smashed the 70-minute barrier in the Great Manchester Half Marathon on Sunday.

His new personal-best time of 1hr 9mins 12secs was good enough for 20th place in the strong field.

Josh Birmingham also set a new best of 1:12:53 to take 36th.

Price ran a marvellous 1:22:52 to finish sixth women finisher, with Matt Grice (1:33:34) among the other Bury finishers in the enormous field.

Byron Edwards travelled to Chicago to compete in Sunday’s marathon.

His finishing time of 2:44:27 was a little outside his best, but was good enough for 17th position in his age group in what was a momentous weekend for marathon running.

He has now completed six major marathons.

The previous weekend, Sarah Thomas ran out as winner in the Rochdale Half Marathon.

Her time of 1:31:25 was very respectable given the undulating nature of the course.