IN-form Blackburn Harrier Ben Fish set a personal best in the Rotterdam Marathon as he finished Britain’s top runner on Sunday.

Fish, who turns 30 next month, led the way for the UK when clocking two hours, 19 minutes and 22 seconds, coming 31st overall in the Dutch city.

That beat his previous best of 2:20:43 which he set at the 2009 Toronto Marathon.

But it still remains short of the Harriers’ club marathon record of 2:18.11 held by Michael Green.

He looked to have given himself an outside chance of earning selection for Great Britain at this summer’s Olympic Games, but the Darwen athlete’s time fell short of the qualifying ‘B standard’ of two hours and 18 minutes. Fish has nonetheless enjoyed a bright start to the 2012 season after sixth and third place finishes at the respective Bath and Hastings half marathons last month, added to him demolishing the field at the Bramley 20-mile road race in February.

n Chorley duo Luke Betts and Adam Sciacca undertook the last cross-country race of the year at Bath University in the British Colleges championships, gaining sixth and 25th places respectively from a large field.

They were both medal winners in helping the North West to second team overall.