2 weeks Ago
Horwich hosted the first round of the South East Lancs Cross Country League at Heaton Park and Harriers members were keen to put on a good show. Louis Yates got the day off to a great start, with fifth place in the under-11 boys’ event, while Imogen Meakin put in a strong performance to place sixth in the U11 girls, with Harper Day (17th) and Jennifer Irving (39th) also running well to earn them third in the team prize. In the U13 boys’ race, Ben Higgins was seventh, while Matthew MacDonald was not far behind in 15th.
Grace Freary bagged herself fifth place and Abigail Taylor was 16th in the U13 girls’ run. Harry Yates was on the bottom step of the podium in the U15 boys’ race, out-sprinting Finlay Mann by a margin of two seconds, while Charlotte Wilkinson and Alice Tucker were second and third, respectively, in the U17 women’s race, which was run in tandem with the senior women, where they placed a fantastic 10th and 13th. Helen Macdonald, in 14th, and Helen Shan, in 35th, helped the two young ‘whippersnappers’ secure third in the team competition.
Mark Walsh (23rd), a resurgent Richard O’Reilly (35th) and Dougie Fleming (53rd) were in action in the senior men’s race, with Fleming coming away victorious in his V65 category. Elsewhere, hill runners from across the country congregated in the picturesque small village of Appletreewick, in the Yorkshire Dales, for the British Fell and Hill Relay Championships. Horwich fielded a strong vet 40 team with the aim of snaffling a podium place in the category.
International star Ian Conroy flew in to start proceedings after a packed summer schedule racing in the mountains of Europe. He covered 5.2 miles (1,525 feet) in 52mins 23secs.
The second leg was to be run in pairs and the dynamic duo of Nick Leigh and Paul Grundy stepped up to the plate. The pair gamely battled around their 8.78-mile (2,667 feet) route to hand over to the third leg in seventh place after 1:12:16.
Julian Goudge and Alastair Murray then combined brilliantly to haul the RMI up the standings on the navigation leg. With no prior knowledge of the route, and only numbered checkpoints on a map to go off, the pair reeled in several competitors to put Horwich back in the mix. Finishing up was club stalwart Danny Hope, who consolidated a fine fifth place in the V40 category on the day, with a podium just nine minutes out of reach after four-and-a-half hours racing.
Plans are already being hatched for an assault on the title in a year’s time. Meanwhile, Gareth Webb was crowned Lancashire M65 five-mile champion for the second consecutive year at the Green Drive 5 in Lytham. Storm Ashley made an unwelcome appearance, with the squally conditions dashing any hopes of record times, but Webb was chuffed with his time of 32:48 nevertheless.
Adrian Bramham also ran and was second-placed M60 with a time of 31:54..
