THE juniors stole the limelight again this week for Horwich with the under-13 boys' A team third overall at the Northern Athletics Road Relays.

The B team were sixth overall in a competition of 28 teams.

Both teams were nip and tuck with their rivals in a race won narrowly by Preston Harriers.

The u13 girls’ team, which did so well recently at the North West Championships, ran impressively again and finished eighth overall ahead of 34 other teams from across the north.

Tom Massey for the u15s has only just come back from injury and has done very little speed work recently but he held on well over the 3.1km course to pip Stockport for 11th place by four seconds in the final leg which built on the strong first two legs by Lewis Wilkes and Luke Brindle.

These results give all of the junior teams a strong platform for the National Road Relay Championships at Sutton Park, Birmingham in two weeks’ time.

The boys’ coach, Andy Townsend, spoke for all the teams and coaches when he proudly said: "This was a superb result by all the lads and girls from such a dedicated set of young athletes."

Milly Lever, the day before running the road relays, had finished as first u14 girl in the Abersoch 2k beach race.

Following up her success there earlier in the year, Milly has now been crowned Beach Chief 2016. Emma Bradley of the Harriers was also first u11 girl.

The seniors at the Northern Road Relays were not at full strength due to injury and finished 26th of 100 teams from 58 clubs.

Mike Cayton got the team off to a fast start and Tim Ellis had a solid second leg but the team finished well behind Liverpool Harriers who will be the region’s main standard bearers in Birmingham.

However, Horwich did what was needed to qualify for the National Championships and their coach was also very pleased with the effort of all the team.

On the fell scene, Nick Leigh had a fine win in the Thieveley Pike race, with Ian Conroy consolidating his world championship form with a close-run third.

Three Horwich juniors represented their schools in the English Schools Championships.

Freya Whittle and Lydia Johnson flew the flag for Rivington and Blackrod and Robert Seddon was Canon Slade's sole representative.

In parkrun, Lindsey Brindle is clearly recovering form following serious injury earlier this year.

At Bolton, she improved her time of two weeks previously by nearly a minute to be the first woman home, making it a double first for Horwich as Joe Mercer was overall first runner.

Horwich RMI results: Ron Hill’s 78th Birthday 5k (Whitworth) – 21st Paul Boardman 19:10; Thieveley Pike fell race (Burnley) – 1st Nick Leigh 34:31, 3rd Ian Conroy 35:00, 15th Dan Gilbert 39:30, 22nd Graham Schofield 40:18, 45th Doug Fleming 44:35, 87th Patrick Conroy 56:10; St Boniface Down fell race (Ventnor) – 104th David Barnes 25:50; Ventnor Horseshoe fell race – 103rd David Barnes 1:17:28; Swinton 10 mile road race – 30th Gary Chadderton 1:08:04, 85th Lawrence Pinnell 1:20:15, 90th Gordon Stone 1:20:46; English Schools Fell Championships (Sedbergh) – Year 7 girls – 50th Freya Whittle 24:48, 69th Lydia Johnson 26:41; Year 8/9 boys – 15th Robert Seddon 23:51; Northern Athletics Road Relay Championships (Sport City, Manchester) – u13 girls' – Ella Pendlebury 11:22, Isabella Merritt 11:11, Milly Lever 11:29; u13 boys' A – Cian Healy 9:56, Matthew Flatters 10:28, Matthew Mair 10:04; u13 boys' B – Nathan Lancaster 10:20, Isaac Simmonite 10:42, Toby Middleton 10:20; u15 boys' – Lewis Wilkes 9:35, Luke Brindle 10:04, Thomas Massey 10:19; Senior Men – Michael Cayton 16:47, Tim Ellis 17:34, Michael Hallas 20:15, Alastair Murray 18:23, Simon Pymm 18:40, Lukas Siska 18:24.