JEMMA Clarry set a county championship junior record at the annual Suffolk 5K Championships, staged on the track at the West Suffolk Arena in Bury St Edmunds.

JEMMA Clarry set a county championship junior record at the annual Suffolk 5K Championships, staged on the track at the West Suffolk Arena in Bury St Edmunds.

Teenager Clarry, of Saint Edmund Pacers, won the race outright as well as registering a new Suffolk junior landmark (for the meeting) of 19mins.

She tracked long-time leader Natasha Belsom for most of the 12.5 laps, before hitting the front during the final 400 metres.

Belsom, of Ipswich Jaffa, was second overall and the leading senior athlete in 19.08, followed by Sudbury Joggers' Amanda Henry (19.19), who accompanied the leading two for most of the race.

West Suffolk AC's Emily Barker was the first under-17 athlete, followed by the Pacers duo of Sherilyn Rigby and Rebecca Guy.

An in-form James Calvert just pipped Peter Barker to the Suffolk men's title.

Calvert was fresh from finishing second to David Miller at the recent Kirton Friday Five, and he managed to hold Barker at bay to win in 15.23.

Barker had competed for Great Britain at a Veterans International meeting in Kent the previous weekend, and he was only three seconds behind Calvert.

Jaffa's Robert Chenery stopped the clock at 15.55 in third spot, while Pacers' Steve Robinson and Wesley Benton, of Sudbury Joggers, completed the top five.

The host club Pacers will have to re-write their record books after this event. In addition to Clarry setting a new best for under-20 women, Barker's 15.26 was enough for him to take the over-40 record off chairman David Reed, who in turn was only two seconds adrift of eclipsing Peter Golding's over-45 record.

Robert Price also paced himself to perfection to set a Pacers' club record of 20.49 for the over-65s, knocking 26 seconds off Colin Weight's previous best.

There was also a good turn-out in the two junior 1,500m races.

Sam Harrison was first home in a swift 5.15, with Seb Anthony clocking the fastest time for an under-13 athlete of 5.19.

His sister Justine Anthony won the girls' event in 5.23, with Pacers club-mate Alice Maguire finishing first in the under-13 category.