TOM Carson produced his best time since October to cross the line first in Saturday’s Bolton parkrun.

The Horwich Harrier clocked a superb 17mins 8secs to finish one minute and 20 seconds ahead of second-placed Paul Freary.

Carson, who has been first to finish on 10 of his 13 appearance at Leverhulme Park, has only run quicker than Saturday’s time on three previous occasions.

And there is every reason to think he could run faster as he is getting back to full fitness after not training properly throughout the winter.

It was also a good day for David Beales who finished fifth in a new personal best of 19:52.

It was his fourth PB in the five appearances he has made since making his Bolton bow in November.

Matthew Garside broke the 21-minute barrier for the first time when he crossed the line in 12th position with a time of 20:51.

It was his first PB since setting three in succession between May and July last year.

Two places behind him was Lewis Hodgson who is in a rich vein of form at the moment.

The 15-17 age group runner had his first PB for nine runs last week and followed straight up with another one when he finished Saturday’s 5k course around the track and trails of Leverhulme Park in 21:11 – 25 seconds quicker than he ran seven days earlier.

Ged Turner continued to set PBs in bundles when he ran his third in a row on Saturday.

He did not set any in his previous 13 appearances, but before that he set PBs in all eight of his appearances after his initial run at Bolton.

The Burnden Road Runner, who is in the 55-59 age group, crossed the line in 22:49, 10 seconds quicker than he ran the previous week.

That run shaved just a single second off the personal best he had set seven days earlier which, in turn, was nine seconds faster than the PB he had had since way back in November 2014.