Bedford & County AC's Mark Draper became Bedford's first ever sub-four minute miler in the New York Indoor Mile recently.

He ran a superb 3.56.80mins to finish third and a mere 1.2secs behind the winner, Britain's top miler Andy Baddeley. Draper's time also moves him into eighth position on the Great Britain all-time rankings for the indoor mile.

Bedford team-mate Neilson Hall, meanwhile, was representing England in the Elgoibar International Cross Country race.

Finishing in a magnificent 10th place, Hall beat England's other three representatives by over 45 seconds, finishing as third European and just 60 seconds behind the winning Kenyan athlete.

>> The senior men's team won their sixth South of England Cross Country Championship in nine years at London's Parliament Hill at the weekend.

Regaining the championship that they lost last year, after four consecutive victories, was particularly sweet as England international Neilson Hall comfortably won the 15k race, beating almost 1,000 runners.

The team are now looking forward to the English National Championship in Leeds in four weeks, where they will be looking for their first victory in the championship having finished second twice in the last three years.

>> In other action, Emily Wallbank finished superbly in second place competing for Team England at the LXVII Cross International Juan Muguerza cross country race in Elgoibar, Spain recently.