GREAT Britain sprinter Craig Pickering put City of Salisbury’s thriving young sprint group through their paces in a special coaching session.

The 27-year-old passed on his wealth of knowledge and experience to a hatful of the region’s best short distance prospects at the one-off day.

A group of 20 athletes and coaches, led by Lee Ness, were briefed on technical drills and start practices by the Olympic sprinter which will help take the budding runners to the next phase in their sprint specialism.

The club have also been busy in racing action. Stuart Holloway was among 15 City of Salisbury athletes competing in round two of the Hampshire road race league in Portsmouth, where he was the club’s top performer in the Victory 5mile.

On the fast flat surface alongside Portsmouth harbour, Holloway’s 26min 31sec run placed him fourth in the league competition among the 500 finishers.

Chris Southern was Salisbury’s next best with 28.34 and making up the point-scoring team of four were Mike Brewster in 29.05 and Kevin Daniels 31.04.

Then came Rithy Hy with 31.35, Nick Willetts 34.23, Darren Clissold 35.32, Craig Murphy 36.29, Rod Smith 40.01 and Colin Martin 46.54.

In the ladies’ race, Sarah Brewster clocked a good 35.45 and she was followed by Ali Sloane 36.39, Melenie Murphy 38.30, Jane Whiteley 40.37 and Jacqueline Chlebowski 43.52.

Preparing for the Chicago marathon next month, Aaron Wilson put his distance training to the test and took an encouraging fifth place in the Northampton half marathon with 77min 38sec.

At the hilly Great Wishford 10k won by James Ruskin of Salisbury in 39.20, best placed club runner was Kevin Tilley who took a well-earned third pace in 40.52. Ian Berry from Winterbourne Earls was fifth in 41.13, then came Adam Bradburn in 44.55, Andy Gillespie 50.25, Graham Wickham 51.15, John Ruskin 53.33, Steve Lomas 54.33 and Kathryn Dreyer 65.06.