HORWICH athletes dominated the first of this summer's Haigh Hall Four-Mile midweek races.

The red and black vests took three of the top four positions.

Chris Farrell continued his superb form when he broke the course record to win by 38 seconds from club-mate Michael Cayton.

Tom Carson, still on the mend from a cycling accident, was fourth a further 21 seconds back.

David Jackson won the veterans' over-45s race in 16th place overall while Rudolf Maciejkowicz took yet another V60 prize and 70th overall in a field of 305.

Results: 1 Chris Farrell 20mins 17secs, 2 Michael Cayton 20:55, 4 Tom Carson 21:16, 16 David Jackson (V45) 23:09, 36 Steven Foley (V45) 24:24, 40 Sean McMyler (V50) 24:32, 60 Rudolf Maciejkowicz (V60) 25:54, 140 Sandra Kelly (F45) 28:28, 141 Mark Swindell (V45) 28:29, 183 David Barnes (V55) 30:09, 216 Lawrence Pinnell (V45) 32:25.

Five Horwich runners competed in Saturday's FRA Inter-Counties Championship at Betws-y-Coed.

In the under-16s boys, Luke Massey finished an excellent 17th while his dad Paul was Greater Machester's third counter in 50th place overall.

Chris Farrell was 13th and Michael Cayton 23rd to help the team finish eighth of the 19 counties and regions from all over Britain.

Lindsey Brindle was seventh representing Lancashire in the senior ladies' race, and first counter for Lancashire who finished fourth out of 10 teams.

Geoff Leech was 133rd in 49:33 and Martin Hammond 266th in 61:48 in the Worden Park 10k which attracted 317 runners.

Three Horwich RMI Harriers were among the 5,654 finishers in Sunday's Chester Half Marathon, V45 Nick Kelly coming 216th in 1:28:21, his wife Sandra (F45) 696th in 1:37:14 and Christine Boardman 3354th in 2:02:06.