Fairlands Valley Spartan Jim Brown won the county track 10k championship for veterans (40 plus) on Sunday. He was at the Bedford International Athletics Stadium for his third race in three days to win the gold medal by a margin of 23 seconds. His time was

Fairlands Valley Spartan Jim Brown won the county track 10k championship for veterans (40 plus) on Sunday.

He was at the Bedford International Athletics Stadium for his third race in three days to win the gold medal by a margin of 23 seconds. His time was 41:21.

Five Spartans enjoyed an end of track season open graded event organised by Biggleswade AC at Sandy on Saturday.

In the 5k event, Steve Smithson improved his season's best by 10 seconds with his time of 20 minutes and 0.6 of a second.

Annette Bell took a huge 37 seconds off her season's best for a 3k race with 11:37.

In the 1500m, Chris Leigh ran a new personal best of 5:27, Paul Holgate finished in 6:11 and in his second of three weekend races, Jim Brown ran the event in 5:45.

Sara O'Callaghan took up the Dunstable Downs 20-mile challenge and her time was an excellent 3-13:44 for this tough event.

Roger Biggs was in Northern Spain for the second running of the Zaragoza Marathon at the weekend.

Suffering from a sore Achilles in the latter stages of the marathon, Roger crossed the finish line in 4-13:57.

It was a beautiful day in Hyde Park on Friday for the first of Jim Brown's three races in three days.

Running in the Serpentine Last Friday 5k, he finished in 20:22 and was 72nd out of the 228 in the race.

* Natasha Pitman won the Dunstable 20-mile challenge for the North Herts Road Runners on Sunday.

Natasha was the first lady to finish the hilly 20 mile off-road course, crossing the line in 2-40:40 for first place.

Gary Cook was the first man home for the Squirrels after running with Natasha and assisting her with the tough navigational aspects of the course. He was 20th overall.

Michael Mello also took part finishing in 3-03:31 while Lyndsay Cook completed the course in 4-14:39.

John Russell was back in action in the Saffron Walden 10k on Sunday. He was 65th in the village's annual race finishing in 43:44.

On the same day, Johnny Spinks was competing in the Berlin marathon, an event that saw Haile Gebreselassie break the marathon world record.

Johnny finished a little later than the Ethiopian but still recorded an excellent time of 3-23:01 in his first race over the distance.

A number of Squirrels took part in the Serpentine last Friday of the month 5k in Hyde Park.

Astrid and Steve McKeown travelled down to the capital for the race and Astrid was rewarded with yet another race victory. She crossed the line in 17:42.

Husband Steve was fifth in the men's race in 16:42, while Martyn Annetts also raced and finished in 19:45 in the ever popular event. Chris Priestley was third in the vet 55 age category completing the course in 20:31.