CITY of Salisbury athletics club had ten runners competing in the London Marathon where half of them produced new personal bests.

Cool and drizzly conditions at the tightly-packed start were no deterrent to the field of 37,500.

Stuart Holloway produced one of his best performances for many months, crossing the line on The Mall in 2hours 38mins 31sec, an improvement at the distance by six minutes and within sight of the running legend Paula Radcliffe.

Mike Brewster at the age of 49 ran an outstanding 2.57.05, knocking nine minutes off his previous best and finishing in his age category’s top 200.

Next was Phil Smith who ran a creditable 3.09.22 and Steve Auton posted his first result at the distance with 3.09.54.

Then came Ruth Thom whose exploits in triathlons stood her in good stead for a huge improvement to 3.13.50, her previous best being outside four hours.

Nikki Hazzard clocked 3.30.54, Katherine Bleakley beat the four hour barrier with 3.53.00 and Chrissy Gorham made the top 60 in her age group with a well-earned 3.54.45.

Liz Roberts was well within sight of the finish clock when her previous best time was showing, her 4.08.10 - just eight seconds away from her best. Sue Hazzard completed the group’s successful day with 4.26.23, to mark a good return to marathon running.

In the 11k Houghton trail race near Stockbridge, Laura Buchanan was the Salisbury club’s fastest with a time of 56min 10sec, despite having run a marathon just a week before.

Liz Roberts was next in 60.15, then came Andy Robbins 60.25, John Gorham 62.27, Chrissy Gorham 62.29 and Kathryn Dreyer 69.44.

In the first track league meeting of the year at Bracknell, a big Salisbury squad saw off teams from Swindon, Team Dorset, Hercules AC and Wimbledon.

Jay Domoney, at 16, had his first taste of senior competition and broke the two minute barrier in the 800m, placing him second with an excellent 1min 59.9sec.

Georgina Henry won her first outing in the senior discus with a personal best 28.5m, and Jack Padget took second in the shot with a throw of 10.26m.