Setting the stage for her older clubmates at the London marathon, City of Salisbury’s Bea Wood took a triumphant repeat win on The Mall in the under 15 girls’ mini marathon just before the main event.

Timed at 16min 35sec for the 5k distance, her victory was a repeat of her success in the same fixture last year and gave the club a jubilant start to the day.

In the seniors’ 26 miler revered by runners across the world and won by Kenyan marathon marvel Eliud Kipchoge in 2hours 2mins 38sec, Salisbury was well represented by a group of 19, seven of them setting hard-earned personal bests.

Best of the bunch was Rob Drag whose great run of 2.45.55 clipped five minutes from his previous mark and shows what he can yet achieve.

Three more of the club’s runners beat the three hour barrier, James Mills stopping the clock at 2.51.09pb, James Hassan 2.53.09 and Steve Auton 2.55.39pb.

Next was the ever-improving Ruth Thom whose 3.00.40 sliced a huge 13minutes from her previous best.

She was followed by Rithy Hy 3.06.11, Poppy Langdon-Down 3.13.12 a pb by ten minutes, Mike Brewster 3.19.57, Phil Smith 3.22.17 and Charlotte Ingram’s 3.27.58 also a ten minute pb.

Veteran Fiona Ross-Russell ran well for 3.41.04, Sarah Brewster also putting years aside with a pb 3.48.29.

Then came Emma Clarke 3.49.44, Nick Hudson 3.57.36, Melenie Murphy 4.00.36, Jonathan Alston 4.23.27pb, Lisa Milner 4.44.40, Rebecca Roycroft 5.05.04 and Clare Clifford 5.46.24.