ATHLETICS: Bolton marathon legend Steve Kenyon is making a one-off racing comeback to raise money for charity.

The 58-year-old, who was third in the New York Marathon in 1979, British champion in 1982 and was the last British athlete to win the Great North Run in 1985, will line up alongside 250 runners for a 5k race at Cown Reservoir in Rochdale next month.

He will be one of 20 former international athletes who have accepted an invitation from top over-50s long distance runner Mike Deegan to run the race to raise money in memory of his wife, Angela, who died of cancer last year.

Also in the starting line-up will be former Bolton Harrier Ron Hill, now aged 71, whose many athletic achievements included winning the Boston Marathon and Commonwealth Games Marathon, another ex-Bolton Harrier, Tony Leonard, and former Commonwealth Games 800m gold medalist and fifth in the World Championships, Diane Modall.

Kenyon, who lives in Harwood and still runs regularly to keep fit, said: “I don’t race anymore and this is just a one-off comeback.

“Mike asked me to run and I thought I would try to raise a bit of money for Cancer Research.

“There can’t be many families who haven’t been touched by cancer. I myself lost both my parents to cancer and my brother is currently fighting it.

“So I thought it was time to put something back.”