A WINNING week for Horwich began with Danny Hope claiming his first outright win while running in the MV40 category at Blackstone Edge, building on his recent fine form in the British Championships.

On the same evening, Lindsey Brindle was first lady at the Harriers’ Jubilee road race, the first in the four-race series from Rivington Village Hall. Steve Jackson was first MV60 and Rudolf Maciejkowicz first MV65.

The outright winner of the first race was Gary Priestley of Salford Harriers, who was in impressive form following his Inter Counties fell success for Greater Manchester.

The next leg in the Jubilee series on June 21 will be the Central Lancs Grand Prix with a large competitive field expected.

On the junior front the Harriers’ Robert Seddon has just been awarded his first GM county vest for the Inter Counties championships at Rossendale in June. In the Jubilee Street races he celebrated with third place in the under-15s race behind Leon Thomas of Blackburn and the Harriers’ Lewis Wilkes. In the same race Matthew Flatters was first u13s runner. The race for first female was hotly contested with another Blackburn runner, Amy Davies, triumphing but closely followed by a Horwich trio with Ella Pendlebury just pipping Isabella Merritt and Millie Lever.

In the u11s race Ethan Isaacs was the winner, with Harrison Stokes the first u9s runner.

Emma Bradley was the second female finisher and was also second female of any age at the main Haigh Woodland parkrun.

Another splendid win came from Julian Goudge who, having won the first Astley Park trail race earlier in the month, beat a strong field in the Asics Windermere marathon over a course that is far from flat and he was presented with the trophy by famous fell runner Joss Naylor, a legend of Lake District racing over many decades.

The juniors also had a great day out at Saddleworth fell race, including a debut on the fells from Caitlyn Sefton.

The club’s junior fell coach, Tony Hesketh, having watched the stirring efforts of the youngsters, then went out and took first prize in the MV65 race.In the Youth Development League track and field match at Eccles, Horwich had a big turnout of young athletes, many having run the street race earlier in the week.

The team spirit was shown by the u15s with both the boys and girls teams winning their 4x100m relays. Isabella Merritt also achieved an AAA Grade One standard in the u13s 1200m, winning in 3mins 59secs. And Sophie Walton did the double at u15s with wins in both the 100m and 200m. In the overall team competition Horwich were third of seven teams in this North West Third Division competition.

Results: Blackstone Edge fell race (Littleborough) – 1st Danny Hope 30:45, 11th Dan Gilbert 34:45. Jubilee Road 5 mile road race (Rivington) – 9th Lindsey Brindle 31:08, 14th Chris Essex Crosby 32:34, 24th Steve Jackson 34:41, 26th David Unsworth 34:54, 30th Rudolf Maciejkowicz 35:26, 55th Gemma Stokes 39:13, 59th Linda Webb 40:00, 64th Bernie Unsworth 41:11, 75th Mark Dacre 47:57. Mount Famine fell race (Hayfield) – 143rd David Barnes 01:13:18. Crazy Cow 10k road race (Preston) – 230th Richard Longlands 52:58, 302nd Carol Richardson 56:01, 476th Lynn Smith 01:03:09, 477th Lesley Davidson 01:03:09. Essar Chester half marathon – 505th David Unsworth 01:38:46, 652nd Sandra Kelly 01:41:19, 1742nd Bernie Unsworth 01:55:54. Saddleworth fell race (Greenfield) – 18th Tony Hesketh 31:08.