A club record, a first place and four personal bests were achieved by members of Ely Runners, at the Cambridgeshire Cross-Country Championships, on Sunday. Graham Chapman defied the difficult conditions, at the Priory Park course, in St Neots, to record a

A club record, a first place and four personal bests were achieved by members of Ely Runners, at the Cambridgeshire Cross-Country Championships, on Sunday.

Graham Chapman defied the difficult conditions, at the Priory Park course, in St Neots, to record an impressive 44min 35sec and become the first member of Ely Runners, in the Male Veterans 50-59 age group, to complete a 10k cross-country race.

The 50-year-old was sixth overall in the MV50 category.

Secretary of Ely Runners, John Turner, said: "Graham's been running for a long time, but has only been involved in competitive running in the last couple of years and has improved enormously in that time. His only regret seems to be that he didn't become a club runner sooner."

Turner was first of the four MV60 runners to finish, in 49min 09sec, and, despite muddy grass and waterlogged woodland tracks, Ely Runners Stephen Howard (39min 16sec), Alan Rutterford (44min 35sec) and Tom Gooch (1hr 59sec) all recorded personal bests for a 10k cross-country race.

On the same day, Ely Runner Gina Handoll was the third female to complete the Ropsley Raid Half-Marathon in 2hrs 06sec.