HORWICH'S Dan Gilbert conquered Great Gable in atrocious weather as the Lake District Mountain Trial race was called off at control point five, but he was one of 10 runners in the medium race to finish.

After a sixth-place finish at Hades Hill the previous Thursday, Gilbert had been hoping for some cooling rain on Sunday but it was high winds and lashing rain that greeted the competitors at Buttermere.

He had also chosen the medium course not wanting to bite off more than he could chew but 10 competitors on that course had just passed control point five before the race was called off.

Josie Greenhalgh of Lostock AC, a veteran of many Lakes runs including the 24-hour Bob Graham Round, was one of the runners on the classic route and was among many pulled out of the race by the organisers.

Gilbert told her after the race that, after leaving CP5, he had a treacherous traverse of Great Gable and then on to the summit of Kirk Fell before heading over to Haystacks and down to the finish.

She said: "These are serious climbs anyway but to do it when being battered by 40-plus mph winds and rain – big respect to Dan.”

The legendary Joss Naylor, now 81 years old, completed the short course – his 50th official mountain trail completion.

There were also good performances from Horwich's junior athletes at the North West Road Relay championship in Blackpool.

The under-13 girls’ team of Isabella Merritt, Freya Whittle and Eva Baldwin were second in the North West race and this was good enough to give them the gold medal for Greater Manchester clubs.

The u15 girls' team finished sixth in the North West relay race – Georgia Heath, Ella Pendlebury and Milly Lever all returning sub-13 minute legs to take the silver medal for the Greater Manchester competition.

The u15 boys’ team of Robert Seddon, Matthew Flatters and Matthew Mair went one better in finishing fifth in the North West but had to settle for being the third Greater Manchester team.

The u11 girls’ team exceeded expectations in taking fourth place – Emma Bradley, Imogen Andreassen and Pip Nuttall were also a little unlucky in not getting any medals because they were beaten by three other Greater Manchester clubs.

Elsewhere, Michael Cayton took on the Ribble Way trail half-marathon and was clear winner by eight minutes.

Super veteran Paul Muller won the V60 prize and Dave Jackson made a great return to races with fifth place.

In parkrun, normal service was resumed at Cuerden Valley with Richard Howarth running in first, but there were also no less than three other first places for Horwich with Nick Leigh at Worsley Woods, Gareth Booth at Newby Bridge and Andy Lloyd at Haigh Woodland.

Horwich RMI Harriers results: Hades Hill fell race (Whitworth) – 6th Dan Gilbert 38:47, 69th David Barnes 51:17.

Padfield Plum Fair fell race (Hadfield) – 2nd Simon Pymm 38:01.

Lake District Mountain Trial (medium route) – 5th Dan Gilbert 6:13:35; (classic route) – 32nd Mark Seddon 4:38:40.

Blackleach 5 mile trail race (Walkden) – 12th Michael Chadderton 32:13, 93rd Gordon Stone 40:00, 106th Lawrence Pinnell 40:46.

Burnsall fell race (Wharfedale) – 58th Jason Middleton 31:15.

Ribble Way trail half-marathon (Preston) – 1st Michael Cayton 1:17:43, 4th Paul Muller 1:29:55, 5th Dave Jackson 1:31:52.

Great North Run road half-marathon (Newcastle) – 676th Richard Marlton 1:28:33, 2,713th Paul Wilcockson 1:39:37.