Horwich Harriers had success on a range of terrains at the weekend - track, road, trail, fell and cross country.
In the UK Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham, it was a busy three-hour schedule in the women’s open-age 200m event.
Sophie Walton won her first heat, was third in the semi-final and then repeated her performance of 2022 by finishing fourth in the 200m open-age final. As an under-20 competing against senior athletes, this was an impressive result and Walton has been justly rewarded with a place in the GB & NI squad for the 200m relay race at the Dynamic New Athletics (DNA) U20 indoor match in Madrid this week, taking on the Czech Republic, France, Ireland, Portugal and Spain.
At Leverhulme Park on Sunday, Bolton United Harriers presented the first race in this year’s Central Lancashire Grand Prix which consists of 11 races at a range of venues competed for by athletes from 11 clubs.
In the Bolton 5k road race, there were eight Harriers taking part and Sam Fairhurst top scored in 11th place and Richard Pollitt was 19th.
With Marcus Taylor taking the M50 prize, the Harriers team finished fifth out of 34 teams in the race.
At the Standish Hall Trail race, it was double joy for Horwich vets as Tony Hesketh and Gillian Smith took the v70 prizes for men and women.
There was even more team success for Horwich on the fells in the Forest of Bowland where, in the Bleasdale Circle race, Alex Fowler was third - an even better result when seen in the context of the other three finishers at the front being from the local Bowland fell runners, local knowledge being at a premium.
Mark Walsh was first M55 and Graham Schofield first M65, with Chris Charnley giving fine support, too, for the team to finish second behind Bowland.
It was the third of four fixtures of the 2022/23 season of the South East Lancs Cross Country League at Heaton Park on Saturday with 22 Horwich athletes taking part and further team success for the u11 girls.
Grace Freary and Kitty Crossland were separated by only one second in second and third places, and with Sarah Lawman close by, the team were first in the race and consolidated that position in the series with only one more event to go.
In the u11 boys’ race, Louis Yates was sixth and with strong runs from Cassius Roberts and Jacob Wilkinson, they finished second team. They will be looking to improve on their series third place position in the final race at Heaton Park on March 4.
Harry Yates was second in the u13 boys’ race and is joint first in the series with Otis Kershaw of Oldham with all to run for.
Grace Mort is second in the series u15 girls’ category after winning on Saturday.
In the older categories, Charlotte Wilkinson, Emma Bradley and Alice Tucker took second team place in the u17 ladies’ race. Janet Rashleigh was first L60, Alison Mort third L40 and Richard O’Reilly first M55 - Wilkinson and O’Reilly are leading the series in their categories too.
This weekend, the club has a contingent of 39 runners entered for the English National Cross-Country Championships at a new venue for the event - Bolesworth Castle in Cheshire - where the club will be looking to improve its standing further after a strong showing in the Northern championships and Manchester League this season.
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