CHRIS Farrell climbed to 25th in the national rankings when he ran a brilliant race at the Trafford 10k on Sunday.

He ran a personal best time of 30mins 35secs to finish 26th in a high class field featuring several international runners.

A specialist fell runner, he made the transition to the road with huge success, putting himself eighth in the North West rankings for the distance this year and running a full five minutes faster than his PB of two years ago.

The English Fell Championships opened with a strong representation from the club's fell runners on Saturday.

James Kevan and Joe Mercer led the way for Horwich in the men's race which had 325 finishers.

Lindsey Brindle had a good start to her 2015 campaign in finishing sixth in the women's race in which 148 finished the 9km (5.7-mile) race with 470 metres of ascent near Todmorden.

Results – men: 18 James Kevan 42:03, 24 Joe Mercer 42:31, 85 Gareth Booth (V40) 46:36, 90 Jonathan Bruton 46:48, 139 Andy Lloyd (V40) 49:03, 158 Dave Milliken (V45) 50:12, 169 Brendan Bolland (V45) 50:46, 195 Steve Jackson (V60) 53:10, 220 Nick Kelly (V45) 54:40, 230 Brian Walton (V60) 55:49, 277 Michael Crook (V65) 62:26, 302 Peter Heneghan (V70) 68:03, 312 Colin Waterworth (V55) 71:30.

Women: 6 Lindsey Brindle 48:09, 45 Suzanne Budgett (F50) 57:14, 57 Sandra Kelly (F45) 58:57, 77 Erica Booth 61:09.

The juniors again showed their great talent in the final fixture of the Red Rose Cross Country League at Lancaster.

The boys' under-13s had a clean sweep of the podium positions with all five runners in the top 10 of the 23 boys in the race.

Ella Pendlebury won silver in the series to add to her South East Lancs and Red Rose titles.

Matthew Flatters (u11s) and Lewis Wilkes (u13s) also achieved silver medals, with Tom Massey (u13s) taking bronze.

In the team standings Horwich are u13s boys champions, the senior men finished runners-up, and the V40 men took bronze.

Christa Whatmough and Helen Horridge had solid runs in the 6k women's race.

Results – u11s girls: 3 Ella Pendlebury 7:17, 13 Freya Whittle 7:49, 32 Olivia Baker 8:40.

U11s boys: 9 Matthew Mair 7:01. U13s boys: 1 Lewis Wilkes 10:53; 2 Tom Massey 11:10; 3 Luke Brindle 11:34; 7 Robert Seddon 11:55; 10 Kieren Kinealy 12:06. U15s boys: 15 Robert Gibson 14:45.

Senior women: 70 Christa Whatmough (F35) 38:05, 105 Helen Horridge (F35) 34:00.

Senior Men: 11 Ryan Stevenson 31:37, 83 Garry Chadderton (V50) 36:20, 106 Doug Fleming (V50) 37:42, 137 Gordon Stone (V55) 40:24.

Mick Green was first V50 and sixth overall in the Stan Bradshaw Pendle Round Fell Race in 1:14:34, with Tony Hesketh (V65) 72nd in 1:31:57 and Ed Swift (V65) 178th in 2:21:00.

Michael Cayton took his first victory of the year at the 9k Roddlesworth Roller on Sunday, and Lindsey Brindle followed her strong run in Saturday's English Championship by winning the women's category and coming ninth overall.

Recently turned 40, Alastair Murray took the V40 honours and was fourth overall whilst Rudolf Maciejkowicz was again invincible in the V60 category in a field of 177 finishers.

Results: 1 Michael Cayton 31:55, 4 Alastair Murray (V40) 34:06, 9 Lindsey Brindle (F) 36:42, 23 Paul Boardman 39:35, 31 Rudolf Maciejkowicz 40:18, 82 Erica Booth (F) 45:32, 83 David Lee 45:42.

In the 2.2k Daffodill Doddle, Nathan Townsend was the runaway winner, with Lewis Wilkes second, Matthew Flatters fourth, Nathan Lancaster fifth, Matthew Mair sixth and Keiran Kinealy ninth amongst the 185 finishers.

The classic Rivington Pike Fell Race, one of the oldest fell races on the running calendar, takes place on Easter Saturday at 3pm.

Entries are taken on the day at the Crown Hotel for the race which is only matched by the Burnsall Fell Race in terms of history and has been hosted by the Harriers for more 60 years.

Rob Jackson won the Stroke Association Resolution 10km at Heaton Park on Sunday.