MARK Brown won two bronze medals in the World Games for disabled athletes in Barce- lona, then came home to run a marathon.

Following his performances, the popular East Lancashire athlete, who is a member of both Clayton Harriers and Blackburn Harriers, is poised to run in his second Paralympics in Sydney next year.

In Spain, Mark, who has only one arm, competed for Great Britain in both the 5,000m and 10,000m against teams from around the globe including China, USA, Yugoslavia and hosts Spain. He produced his best form to lift medals in each event, and a new personal best of 15mins 32secs in the shorter race has earmarked him for a place in the team for Australia.

Just days after arriving home, he was running in last weekend's Blackpool Marathon. After the race had settled down, a small group of four or five elite athletes, worked together into a stiff headwind as they ran towards Fleetwood, then at around 16 miles, with the wind behind them as they turned back, Mark made his move. At 21 miles he was still ahead, but with no long training runs under his belt, his legs began to cramp. Race organiser Ron McAndrew gave him extra drinks and shouted encouragement, but at 23 miles Martin Farran of Leeds caught, then passed him. Mark held his form to confine the gap to less than a minute, and to hold off the challenge of Keith Wilding of Wesham. His fine time of 2:40.15 is likely to earn him a berth in the Great Britain Paralympic marathon team.

Mick Nester's fourth place at Blackpool won the M45 age group, and his time of 2:44.04 was a new Blackburn Road Runners club record, beating Jimmy Nolan's 10 year old mark by seconds. Jason Harbour of Clayton took ninth in 2:49.53 with Gary Wilkinson 12th in 2:51.52.

Other results - Clayton: 53 David Thornton 3:12.23, 83 Marin Bland 3:19.44, 115 Derek Ashcroft 3:27.47.

Accrington RR: 73 Jimmy Smithson 3:18.05, 118 Tony Bolton 3:29.11, 141 Harry Haseley 3:33.55, 170 Stephen Wilkinson 3:37.56, 178 Michael Walmsley 3:40.00, 223 John Haworth 3:49.18, 361 Nicholas Daly 4:36.19, 362 Dave Rowlands 4:36.22, 365 Al Hodgson 4:36.46.

Darwen Dashers: 103 Shane Gudgeon 3:25.23, 420 Peter James 5:19.55.

Burnley AC: 133 Stuart Henderson 3:31.48.

Red Rose RR: 148 Val Sutcliffe 3:34.47.

Chorley Harriers: 251 Daryl Peter 3:55.02.

Blackburn RR: 260 Phil White 3:58.14.

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