THERE were three personal bests and a section winner for Swindon Harriers at the Cricklade Half Marathon and 10k event on Sunday, October 6.

Bernie Merron claimed the male vet 60 category title, while John Lewis came third overall in the half-marathon in a PB of 1.20:08, taking almost two minutes off his previous best.

Eighteenth overall was Michael Tune in 1.24:51, while Peter Keen came 19th in 1.26:00.

Martin Bridgeman, competing in the male vet 35 section, was 21st overall in 1.31:13 just 24 hours after running in the club’s cross-country team, while Rob Green also completed in 1.37:37 to take 98 seconds off his personal best.

Jenny Connolly ran a tremendous race to finish eighth in the senior women section, having smashed her PB by almost seven minutes to post a time of 1.45:55. Maria Hedge ran 1.56:36 to put her 3:49 below her previous best.

In the 10k race, Gary O’Brien was second home overall to win the male vet 40 category in a time of 34:11, a season’s best. Other finishes were Kieran Golding, Shelley Johnson, Sue Green and Carol Durn.

A day earlier, Harriers finished sixth in their first Gloucestershire Cross-County League meeting.

Heath Bampton won his age group - the male vet 45 section - and came home 21st overall as the senior men recorded 316 points.

Callum Bampton was fifth overall in a joint under 15 and under 17 boys race, while Ben McIntryre came eighth in the under 13 boys race.

At the Swindon Parkrun on Saturday, October 5, Barrie Brown was the club’s leading finisher as five of Harriers’ 10 entrants finished in the top three of their respective age category.

Brown was the second male vet 35 runner home, and seventh overall, in 19:19.

Meanwhile, Becky Alexander broke the Swindon Harriers under 13 pentathlon club record at the Exeter Combined Event recently.

Squaring up against the best athletes in the south west at the Exeter Arena, Alexander opened up with a 3.73m long jump before posting the third best time of 12.24 seconds in the 70m hurdles - her favourite event.

A season’s best of 5.79m in the shot-put followed before she leapt 1.24m in the high jump and finished with an 800m run of 2:55.16 to finish 12th overall.

In the process, Alexander registered a total tally of 1,812 points, bettering the previous club best, held since 1997 by Helen Moscrop by 341.

Another Swindon Harrier to record a notable personal achievement recently was Maria Hedge, who finished 3,349th out of 41,000 starters at the Great North Run in September.