LIVERPOOL Harriers’ Colin Potts was the highest placed Merseyside runner in the Flora London Marathon.

The 38-year-old completed the gruelling 26-mile course in a personal best of two hours 32 minutes and 29 seconds to take 73rd place overall.

That was six seconds quicker than he managed in the capital’s showpiece event in 2008.

Clubmate James Meldrum wasn’t far behind as he clocked a PB of 2:36:42 to finish 119th, while Liverpool Running Club’s Paul Sankey came home in 2:39:32.

There were also solid runs from Harriers’ Peter Simpson (3:23:31) and Liverpool RC’s William Willmitt (3:28:01).

The race, which involved some 35,000 runners, was won by Kenya’s Sammy Wanjiru in a course record of 2:05:10.

Southport Waterloo’s Rick Bowker returned after a six-year absence to run 2:51:15 in the London Marathon – only a minute slower than the PB he set 10 years ago. Bowker was the quickest of the club’s 19 finishers.

Clubmate Mark Ashby (3:07:44) completed the race for the 15th consecutive year, while Paul Cain managed to knock around half an hour off the time he set last year with a PB of 3:24:01.

Peter Roome (3:04:42), Chris Dunn (3:06:39), Brian O’Reilley (3:19:37) and Joanne Wilson (3:23:29) also impressed.

Two Southport athletes took part in the 24-mile Three Peaks endurance event in the Yorkshire hills.

Competition was tough with one of the entry criteria being a recent sub 3:20 road marathon.

Steve McLean finished 241st out of 688 starters in 4:17:09, while Edwin Sherstone was 511th in 4:58:36.

Liverpool Pembroke Sefton’s depleted team were sixth out of eight in their first National Junior League (Mersey Division) match at Warrington.

Charlotte Christian was the club’s star performer as she threw a PB of 38.55m to win the women’s hammer and collect the female of the match award.

In the men’s events, Danny Higham won the A 400m (50.3), Tom Hanlon took the 800m (2:00.0) and Harry Doran continued his fine start to the outdoor season by clinching the 200m (23.1).