Cheered on by enthusiastic supporters lining both sides of the road, David Peters, 38, recorded 4:14.2 to finish ninth in the elite New York Road Runners Championship race, part of the Fifth Avenue Mile event in New York.

West Hampstead-based Peters, who runs for Herne Hill Harriers, finished 12 seconds behind Ethiopian winner Bado Merdessa. After setting a personal best for one mile on the road in the process, he said: “I had only recently resumed competition after a series of niggling injuries resulting from the London Marathon in April, and I was questioning my wisdom in entering the race when I saw the quality of the field. ”

Jo Ankier, 27, recorded 5:09.0 to come ninth in the equivalent women’s race.

Richard Goodman, 16, and Sagie Benaim, 19, showed fine form in the first cross country meeting of the season, the Metropolitan League at Ruislip. Goodman was a clear winner of the 4k under-17 race, while Shaftesbury Barnet teammate Benaim came 28th out of 329 finishers in the 8k open event.

Goodman confirmed his status as the leading Under 17 middle distance runner in the country, removing eight seconds from the course record in his relay leg for Shaftesbury in the National Young Athletes Road Relay Championships at Birmingham. In the same race, Avi Fogelman, 16, made a valuable contribution for the Shaftesbury ‘B’ team, running the anchor leg in 14:45.