THERE were mixed results for Horwich at the road relays in Manchester last weekend.

While there was more success for the juniors at Sportcity on Sunday, the senior team, despite some excellent individual times, returned home disappointed, being one of several teams who had a runner disqualified due to technicalities at the handover.

Michael Caton continued his excellent road form and was sixth fastest of more than 650 athletes taking part in the men’s relay event.

And Ian Conroy and James Kevan both showed their versatility following success in the mountains for Ireland with fast times around the Etihad Stadium.

The juniors are building a strong reputation in the relays and, following on from the successes at the North West competition last week, the under-13 and u15 boys and girls had what coach Andy Townsend described as “a great day of individual performances and super team results”.

Strength in depth was in evidence as the u15 girls got a creditable 22nd place, with regular Ella Pendlebury joined by new member Georgia Heath and, after a late call-up, Amy Harrison.

The u13 girls' A team of Eva Baldwin, Freya Whittle and Izzy Merritt had a great sixth place in a field of 46 teams and will be looking forward with confidence to the national relays on October 7.

Another new member, Lucy Dixon, was a solo B team runner but got a fine 17th best individual time.

The Harriers had seven runners in the boys’ u15 race.

The A team of Robert Seddon, Matthew Flatters and Matthew Mair took 12th place, while the B team of Thomas Massey, Isaac Simmonite and Toby Middleton also gained valuable race time following injuries.

Nathan Lancaster, running as a solo C team member, kept them on their toes with a quick leg too.

At u13 level, Cian Healy sent the team off superbly and Isaac Battye and Ethan Isaacs kept up the pace for a strong 16th place.

Gareth Booth ran a fast time for the B team at the road relays on Saturday and then followed up with a win in the Yarrow River trail race in Chorley on Sunday.

It was a close-run thing as Gareth took a wrong turning near the end and ended up winning by one second in a race that features a challenging double river crossing. Tony Hesketh won the M65 prize.

Husband-and-wife team Sean and Maria McMyler also won vet prizes and enjoyed the multi-terrain course of the Burnley 10k with Sean in fifth taking the M50 prize and Maria in 13th being second female and first F35.

Meanwhile, in Bury at the Northern Masters track championships, Rob Jackson in the M50 category followed up his recent New York triumphs with a silver medal in the 3,000m and then 90 minutes later won gold in the 1500m in 5mins 5secs.

Pennington Flash parkrun aimed for a record turnout and Lynn Smith and Lesley Davidson took part despite being entered on Sunday in the English half marathon where, in a field of 3,100 runners, Davidson was 11th in her age category.

Smith and Davidson were seen wisely walking the parkrun course for their 146th and 119th respective appearances.

In junior parkrun, Georgia Heath and Lucy Dixon followed up great results in the Saturday relays with first and second places at Queens Park in Bolton.

Horwich RMI Harriers results: Lantern Pike fell race (Hayfield) – 16th Neil Holding 38:22.

Embsay fell race (Craven) – 67th Jason Middleton 34:43.

Dale Head fell race (Borrowdale) – 56th David Barnes 1:32:28.

Burnley Leisure 10k multi-terrain race – 5th Sean McMyler 41:03, 13th Maria McMyler 43:46.

English half marathon road race (Warrington) – 2,601st Lynn Smith 2:25:43, 2,602nd Lesley Davidson 2:25:43.

Yarrow River Splash 10k Trail race (Chorley) – 1st Gareth Booth 42:18, 27th Tony Hesketh 52:25, 50th Geoff Leech 55:23.