By David Barnes

LUKE Massey built on his recent form with a win in the under-17s men’s race at the Red Rose Cross Country meeting at Leverhulme Park.

The youngster was one of several juniors putting in fine displays for Horwich RMI Harriers in Bolton when he held off the chasing field in style.

Cian Healey beat a field of 76 runners to win the U11s and was ably supported by Isaac Keating and Callum Purnell to earn sixth place in the team competition.

Horwich also had another trio of finishers in this category – Joshua Houghton, Elliot Whittle and Theo Middleton.

The U11 girls team of Lydia Johnson, Freya Whittle and Ellie Green gained tenth team place with Skye Nicholson just outside the team placings.

In the U13s boys, Horwich won the team event with Thomas Massey, Luke Brindle and Robert Seddon given a run for their places by Matthew Flatters, Matthew Mair, Toby Middleton and Lucas Milliken.

Milly Lever, the sole RMI girl in the U13s had a run to be proud of finishing 24th out of 67.

In the U15s Lewis Wilkes in sixth place and Harriet Foley (20th) did the club proud.

Paul Massey, Tony Hesketh and John Parker all won their Vets categories and the senior team of Nick Leigh, Paul Massey, Alistair Murray, David Milliken, David Purnell and Hesketh finished sixth, with the Vets team finishing fifth out of 15.

In the senior ladies, the sole RMI finisher was Helen Horridge in 111th place.

Elsewhere, as the English and British fell racing championships drew to a close for the year, Steve Jackson clinched a third-place medal for the Vet 60 category in both championships.

He has set the challenge for the club’s fell runners to do even better in 2016.

Meanwhile, more results from the Tour of Pendle recently saw Erica Booth finish in 203rd place in a time of 2hrs 34mins 38secs closely followed by Josie Greenhalgh in 2:36:40.

In parkrun last weekend the honours for RMI went to Lindsey Brindle who was first female home at Haigh Woodlands and to Suzanne Budgett for doing the same at Worsley Woods, while Tom Lucas continues to notch up top-five finishes at Bolton.

Geoff Leech made a great comeback after injury to do the Conwy half marathon in under 1hr 42mins, and on a similar note, Jason Middleton made a welcome return to racing at the cross country at Leverhulme Park.