HORWICH’S Alastair Murray has built his season around endurance races and last weekend competed in one of the top races for trail running, the UTMB’s Orsières to Chamonix race over 55km around Mont Blanc, finishing in 90th place in a large field of runners from across Europe in a time of 8hrs 9mins.

Over the Alps at Susu in Italy, Horwich’s Irish international Ian Conroy claimed the World Masters V35 crown with third place overall in a time of 1:09:00 and helped give Ireland a team victory in the same age category, the only men’s team award not won by Italy this year.

Chris Farrell is about to set off for high-altitude training with the GB squad ahead of the World Championships in Bulgaria later this month.

He signed off by storming to victory at the Pennington Flash 5-Mile Trail Race, part of the Central Lancs Grand Prix, smashing the course record by 45 seconds.

Club colleagues were pleased to see Farrell back in a Horwich vest instead of his now regular England and county vests and, of course, the GB vest soon.

On the fells, Andy Ford had a quick return to form in sixth place at Harrock Hill and there was a welcome return from injury for Paul Muller in 12th place. Ford followed up with fifth place at the Chipping Show.

Two juniors starred for Horwich at the famous Grasmere Sports where Caitlyn Sefton, in her first ever fell race, had a podium finish as second girl home in the under-9s' race. Toby Middleton also had a great run, finishing fourth overall in the u14s' race.

On the junior front in the club’s annual Murder Mile race up Winter Hill, Cian Healy showed the seniors behind him a clean pair of heels, winning in 8:35.

In parkrun, he was in a 1-2-3 finish for Horwich at Bolton between Lukas Siska and Dan Gilbert.

Luke Brindle, as an u14, had a great run at Lancaster in the fast 5km road race and Freya Whittle won the junior race at Pennington Flash.

But the vets were not without success, including Rudolf Maciejkowicz having an age-graded first place at Bolton parkrun. Suzanne Budgett (L50) took the age category prize at Harrock Hill, while Tony Hesketh (V65) and Graham Schofield (V60) did the same at Pennington Flash and Pendleton respectively.

Horwich results: Vernons 5k road race (Preston) – 7th Michael Hallas 18:15; 23rd Erica Booth 21:24; Harrock Hill fell race (Bispham) – 6th Andy Ford 35:25; 12th Paul Muller 36:56; 30th Paul Boardman 40:32; 63rd Michael Kay 43:38; 72nd Mark Swindell 44:41; 78th David Barnes 45:16; 93rd Suzanne Budgett 46:32; 123rd Erica Booth 49:13; Lancaster 5km road race – 15th James Jordan 17:06; 26th Luke Brindle 18:22; 35th David Unsworth 19:36; 65th Bernadette Unsworth 23:20; Pendleton fell race (Clitheroe) – 24th Graham Schofield 44:05; 97th David Barnes 57:03; Chipping Show fell race – 5th Andy Ford 1:17:21; Grasmere Sports fell race – 43rd Dan Gilbert 18:40; 143rd Jason Middleton 30:20; Pennington Flash 5-mile trail race – 1st Chris Farrell 25:05; 36th Gary Chadderton 32:34; 42nd Doug Fleming 33:01; 54th David Unsworth 33:43; 85th Tony Hesketh 36:15; 88th David Barnes 36:30; 107th Lawrence Pinnell 38:39; 133rd Bernadette Unsworth 41:09; 162nd Peter Scott 46:16; 170th Derek Whittle 48:50; Rab Mini Mountain Marathon (Derwent Fells) – 116th Stephen Pearson (with Graeme Woodward) 167pts; Royal Rumble fell race (Tockholes) – 20th David Barnes 48:07.