LOCAL runners featured well when Heaton Park hosted the fourth Manchester Marathon on Sunday.

They were among 1,200 runners from across the country competing in the city's marathon, which was slightly down in numbers due to a clash with the North East's Great North Run.

Radcliffe Athletic Club's Jayne Platt took 17th place among the women.

Battling along a gruelling 26-mile course from the Prestwich park to Wythenshaw Park, Jayne, aged 37, beat 80 competitors with an impressive time of three hours, 37 minutes and 15 seconds.

She was joined by her Radcliffe clubmate 61-year-old David Hudson, of Tor Avenue, Tottington. He completed the course in just four hours, five minutes and three seconds.

Radcliffe Athletic Club members joined many other local running clubs in helping to organise the event.

Wheelchair competitor Dave Johnson of Whitefield Road, Bury, chalked up a magnificant fifth place among the wheelchair athletes and Bury runner Steven Higginbottom, 38, of Chaffinch Drive, was also pleased with his performance.

His Asda colleagues persuaded him to don a pink fairy costume for the event to raise money for the Ticklepink Campaign for Cancer Care.

And, despite his costume, he chalked up a time of three hours, 42 minutes and nine seconds.

But eight-time marathon runner, Steve Hamer, of Croft Drive, Tottington, was disappointed. He did not reach his target of three hours and 15 minutes, coming in with a time of three hours, 32 minutes and 23 seconds instead. Women's Results

17 Jayne Platt (Radcliffe AC) 3:37.15

59 Paula Herstritt (Unattached, from Prestwich) 4:27.36

61 Pat Lewis (Rammy Runners) 4:29.04

Wheelchair Results

5 Dave Johnson (Unattached, Bury) 2:48.49

Men's Results

28 Peter Bates (Bury AC) 2:44.54

163 Shaun Layton (Bury AC) 3:17.32

178 Anthony Welsh (Unattached, Prestwich) 3:20.12

248 Stuart Carter (Bury AC) 3:31.21

257 Steve Hamer (Bury AC) 3:32.23

286 Richard Hancock (Bury AC) 3:36.44

297 Leon Szymanski (Unattached, Whitefield) 3:37.31

324 Matthew Holt (Unattached, Ramsbottom) 3:41.27

335 Steven Higginbottom (Unattached, Bury) 3:42.09

475 Tony Lomax (Unattached, Prestwich) 3:59.22

509 David Hudson (Radcliffe AC) 4.05.03

544 Derek Beames (Unattached, Bury) 4:11.10

595 Albert Smith (Unattached, Radcliffe) 4:19.25

631 Graham Brooks (Unattached, Prestwich) 4:28. 24

656 Paul Smith (Unattached, Whitefield) 4:33.20

674 Ian Quick (Unattached, Bury) 4:38.09

677 Paul Hyde (Unattached, Radcliffe) 4:38.18

728 Alfred Wentworth (Unattached, Prestwich) 4:55.49

739 Gordon Hardman (Unattached, Bury) 5:01.59

765 William Henderson (Unatached, Radcliffe) 5:12.55

794 David Garvey (Unattached, Whitefield) 5:39.49

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