JACK Bancroft set a new course record when winning the Sutton Benger 5 miles road race today.
The Bristol and West AC had a great tussle with Wiltshire champion Simon Nott as the pair quickly broke clear of the field.
Bancroft sprints clear from Simon Nott
Bancroft was happy to follow Nott for the first four miles of the race begore moving alongside the Calne Running Club athlete as the pace hotted up in the tense finish.
While Nott has shown good form lately breaking 31 minutes for 10k for the first time, the odds were always stacked in Bancroft’s favour with his superior track speed and inevitably he surged clear in the final 400m for victory in a time of 24mins 54secs.
Nott was two seconds behind while in third Cirencester’s Bill Leggate was two-and-a-half minutes adrift.
Liz Sanigar of Bitton Road Runners ran really well to finish 25th overall and second woman (33:07) behind Stroud’s Jo Fifield (32:24).
Bitton’s Robert Kingdon was 24th (32:49) while Westbury Harriers David George finished 29th to lift the masters over 60s prize in a time of 33:43.