BOLTON United Harriers completed a clean sweep of the men's podium positions at the Bolton 10K.
Jonny Kay took top spot and narrowly missed breaking the course record at the Harriers' annual host race.
Second of the 683 finishers was Anthony Valentine with Karl Darcy third.
Kay opened an early gap over the two-lap course around and within Leverhulme Park, when, comfortable with the quick pace, he decided to take the race on his own terms.
His lead was never threatened as he won in 33mins 20secs.
Valentine was racing for the first time in six months and netted silver when he finished almost a minute later following a hard battle with Darcy in which a five-metre gap remained from start to finish.
Declan Toomey, who won the junior under-20 category, and Tommy Harrison made it five Blue Vests in the top seven, with Benoit Yerle, returning from France, and Danny Shaw and Craig Renshaw helping to take the top two team prizes, well ahead of third-placed Darwen Dashers.
In the women’s race, Leeds City’s Katie Parry clearly blasted out with determination to beat the course record of 38:08 set last year.
She triumphed by more than a minute from Trafford AC’s Sarah Hadak, but was thwarted in her attempt by a mere two seconds, so BUH&AC’s Catherine O’Dwyer’s standard remains.
Bury AC’s junior star Sophie Whittaker edged Bolton’s leading light Nicola Cartridge for bronze.
U20 junior Amy Howatson joined F45 winner Lesley Heyes in the winning team ahead of Burnden Road Runners, whilst Olivia Kearney led Georgia Greenhalgh and Zoe Gibson for the B team in bronze.
The fact 43 Bolton United Harriers runners ran was a fine achievement given the manpower commitment also shown to stage the race which saw 40 otherwise regular runners from the club tackle organisational roles on the day.
Eric Ranicar's 42:54 took the M65 title and Cecilia Woods was second F55.
Race organiser Steve Houghton said: “Feedback has been incredibly positive again, and it was great to see a Bolton one-two-three for the first time.
“I’d like to pay tribute to the volunteers, especially the marshals, as no matter the amount of planning, the smoothness of the event would not have been possible without so many assisting on the day. The best side of the club was truly on show.”
BUH&AC times: Jonothan Kay 33:20, Anthony Valentine 34:12, Karl Darcy 34:17, Declan Toomey 36:27, Tommy Harrison 36:53, Danny Shaw 38:56, Benoit Yerle 39:11, Craig Renshaw 40:17, Nicola Cartridge 41:03, Dave Shaw 41:05, Dean Johnson 42:21, Christian Pickford 42:40, Amy Howatson 43:27, Chris Topping 43:32, Stewart Brierley 43:51, Hamza Golicha 44:02, Gary Jones 44:34, Eric Ranicar 44:56, Stefan Nan 44:59, Andrew Barrow 46:19, Lesley Heyes 46:44, Matthew Pemrick 47:10, Olivia Kearney 47:25, Georgia Greenhalgh 47:55, Zoe Gibson 48:10, Katie Oakley 48:51, Cecilia Woods 48:54, Andrew Gallacher 48:41, Mercedes Mercer 49:35, Tim Corless-Carter 49:08, Chris Worthington 50:23, Paul Rossington 50:37, David Morrison 54:11, Sara Green 54:46, Catherine-B Jones 55:35, Sarah Harwood 56:04, Daniel Foster 56:57, Geoff Knowles 58:33, Gail Harrison 59:14, Kat Healey 61:54, Gerard Tucker 63:16, Jane Lim 63:33, Marc Tillotson 88:59.
The One Mile Fun Run held before the 10K saw 120 entrants range in age from one-year-old to 63 and junior Blue Vests forming more than a quarter of the field.
In the open u15s, Ben Pickford (aged 11) claimed silver behind Horwich RMI’s Matthew Flatters (5:38) around the one-lap course, whilst Isabella Merritt (aged nine) was first girl (6:10) and fourth overall.
BUH&AC times: Ben Pickford 5:55, Isabella Merritt 6:10, Lily Philbin 6:42, Amy Rossington 6:46, Clemencia Longthorne 6:51, Jack Kingdon 6:53, Toby Coop 6:55, Harvey Kenny 7:07, Sam Hazelwood 7:11, Abby Johnson 7:17, Isobel Hall 7:26, Kevin Longthorne 7:28, Edvard Velicka 7:29, Marcus Valentine 7:55, Joshua Bentley-Hughes 8:08, Jack Openshaw 8:14, Elina Velickaite 8:20, Sam Philbin 8:24, Hannah Swales 8:25, Joseph Rossington 8:53, Alexander Stokes 8:55, Sophia Aftab 8:58, Jack Greenhalgh 8:58, Matilda Hall 9:18, Finn Coop 9:22, Zackariyya Aftab 9:39, Ben Povey 11:08, Lucy Kingdon 11:57, Thomas Morrison 12:21, Julie Morrison 12:21, Jasmine Greenhalgh 12:48, Cerys Jones 12:49, Evie Morrison 13:43.
Elsewhere, Simon Dally followed in the footsteps of BUH&AC members smashing marathon personal bests recently.
He completed the London Marathon in an outstanding 2:48:48 for 673rd overall and 74th M45.
Kamlesh Patel clocked 3:15:30, Martin Williamson 3:57:46, Adrienne Fisher and Julie Lomax 4:02:06 and David Huddleston.
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