Bury athletes ventured to Stanley Park in Blackpool last weekend for the North of England Road Relay Championships.

In the women’s four-stage race, Bury’s quartet ran superbly to take 15th place and will qualify for the National Championships. Sinead Taylor ran the opening leg in 19mins 43secs to hand over to Alia Braithwaite just outside the top 10. She covered the second leg in 20:47, moving Bury into the top 10. Student Caitlyn Johnston ran the third leg in 21:03 and Sarah Flett ran the anchor leg in 24:52, and crossed the line in 15th.

Bury’s senior men’s squad was able to field three teams in the six-stage race. The A team took an excellent 20th place and, like the women, will qualify for the Nationals. The sextet comprised of Martin Clark, who scorched round the first lap in 16:59, Christian Peters (17:56), Ben Coop (17:30), Matthew Lowe (18:20), Luke Harreld (18:39) and Callum Gaunt (18:31). Bury’s B team took 53rd place with team members Jack Griffiths (18:53), Rob Fowler (18:58), Conor Wilkinson (19:27), Byron Edwards (19:41), Robert Weston, making his club debut, (19:29) and Patrick Babb (20:25). The C team placed 70th with the stages completed by Alexander Hannay (19:58), Paul Marshall (20:05), Matthew Garside (19:38), Matthew Finch (21:26), Curtis Simpson (21:09) and Pete Barrow (21:14). An incomplete D team also took part, comprising of Robert Butterworth, making his club debut, with 22:39 and Jordan Harreld (20:53). Team manager Byron Edwards was delighted with the performances from the respective teams.

In the under-13 boys’ race, Ethan Statham was Bury’s sole competitor but he ran an excellent first leg of 11:12 to cross the line in eighth. Similarly, Ella Straffon-Finch was the club’s only U13 competitor in the girls’ race, and she covered her leg in 14:10.

Bury had two young athletes representing Greater Manchester in the English Schools Combined Events Championships in Stoke, and in the junior boys’ pentathlon Oliver Cooper took 19th place with 2,058 points. A storm hit the stadium late on in the day forcing the high jump competition to be completed indoors and the cancellation of the 800m. His performances in the four different completed disciplines comprised of 80m hurdles 12.5; shot 11.16; long jump 5.17 and high jump 1.56. In the intermediate girls’ heptathlon, Jemima Miles placed 27th with 3,496 points, a new personal-best points tally. Her individual performances comprised of 80m hurdles 12.73; high jump 1.44; shot 9.13; 200m 28.56; long jump 4.45; javelin 30.42 (PB) and 3:10.43 800m. She won a silver medal as part of the Greater Manchester runner-up team.