IT WAS a weekend of personal bests for several Bury AC athletes.

David Vaughan and Natan Witkowski travelled to Sheffield to compete in the Northern Indoor Track and Field Championships.

Vaughan took an excellent fifth place in the under 17s men’s triple jump, setting a lifetime best of 12.28m. He also ran in the 400m heats and although his third place was not quite enough to qualify for the final, he was rewarded with a new PB of 54.73secs

Witkowski also competed as an under 17 and he set a new personal best of 9.30secs taking sixth place in his heat of the 60m hurdles. In the flat 60m he finished eighth in his heat but set a season’s best of 7.66secs.

Former Bury AC member Jerel Livingston’s completed a fantastic double. The Trafford athlete, who lives in Whitefield, won the under 17 60m in 7.08secs but his winning performance in the long jump of 7.41m was a new championship best performance and is the best performance by any UK athlete so far this year.

Ben Coop ducked under the 69 minute barrier for the first time in the Brass Monkey half marathon in York. He took an excellent fifth place in a time of 68mins 53secs and was genuinely surprised by the quality of his performance as he had been struggling with his form coming up to the race.

To run 80 seconds faster than he did in the race last year was a fantastic achievement and currently ranks Coop sixth in the UK for the distance.

Running in the Through Tatton Park 10k, Sarah Thomas set a new lifetime best of 39mins 03secs – a performance that saw her finish 11th overall and take second place in the women’s race.

At the Heaton Park parkrun, Matthew Garside ran a new PB of 18mins 41secs to finish in sixth place overall - one place ahead of Hannah Price who who was first lady in 18mins 43secs in her debut at the event.

The other Bury finishers included James Ardin (19mins 08secs), Rachel Marshall (19mins 56secs), Anthony Hallahan (20mins 06secs), Lucy Hill (22mins 19secs), Heledd Rimmer (22mins 30secs PB), Dave Flood (23mins 58secs), Susan Wheeldon (23mins 59secs), Ed Hitchin (25mins 18secs), Lizzi Cheshire (25mins 27secs) and Peter Henderson (27mins 04secs).