JOE Mercer stormed to victory in the Whittle Pike Fell Race.

The Horwich racer finished 90 seconds clear of Clayton's Jacob Boyle in second place last Wednesday.

The latter was pressed to the line by Nick Leigh, and Danny Hope made it three in the first four for Horwich who easily won the team prize.

Dan Gilbert and Michael Crook made it a good night for Horwich amongst the 108 runners with the latter taking the V65 prize in the five-mile race with 1600 feet of ascent.

Results: 1 Joe Mercer 40mins 17secs, 3 Nick Leigh 41:55, 4 Danny Hope 43:51, 30 Dan Gilbert (V40) 54:07, 50 Michael Crook (V65) 58:34.

David Jackson was Horwich’s leading runner on the same night at the Chorley 4.4-mile trail race.

In excellent conditions, he finished second V45 and 17th overall in 27:06.

The men’s team was completed by Garry Chadderton (V50), 53rd in 29:28, Richard Marlton (V45), 65th in 30:10 and Gordon Stone (V55), 156th in 35:09.

Erica Booth was the club’s only female representative and was third FV35 and 112th overall in 32:19 with Lawrence Pinnell, the final Horwich Harrier, 173rd in 36:12 in the field of 244.

Sixteen Horwich runners completed the one-mile race for juniors including seven of the first nine in the field of 115.

Results: 2 Luke Massey (U17) 4:55, 4 Lewis Wilkes (U15) 5:10, 5 Nathan Lancaster (U13) 5:17, 6 Thomas Massey (U15) 5:20, 7 Cian Healey (U11) 5:20, 8 Luke Brindle (U13) 5:20, 9 Matthew Flatters (U11) 5:24, 18 Toby Middleton (U13) 5:51, 24 Finley Reid (U11) 5:59, 39 Freya Whittle (F11) 6:28, 48 Lydia Johnson (F11) 6:40, 61 Livia Sutcliffe (F13) 7:10, 64 Theo Middleton (U9) 7:14, 66 Joshua Houghton (U11) 7:16, 94 Skye Nicholson (F11) 8:37, 108 Thomas Humphreys (U7) 10:00.

Over the series, Horwich youngsters occupied seven of the top eight places with Luke Massey narrowly missing out on the title to Clayton's Curtis Holt despite beating him in the final two races.

Richard Howarth finished second overall and first V40 in the Badger 10k trail race near Preston in 35:41.

Paul Boardman was 16th and second V50 in 41:24, Rudolf Maciejkowic, 22nd overall and first V60 in 43:00, and V55 David Barnes was 63rd in 49:09 among the 188 finishers.

On the fells Josie Greenhalgh is demonstrating a fine return to form after injury finishing 53rd overall in the Turner Landscape Fell Race on Sunday, completing the 10.6-mile race with 3,000 feet of ascent in 2:11:53.

Gillian Smith completed the Blackpool Airshow 10k in 61:56.