HORWICH’S Great Britain international, Chris Farrell took the senior men’s first prize in the Mid Lancs League at Astley Park on Saturday.

Farrell's performance in Chorley also lifted the senior team to third place in a competition won comfortably by Preston Harriers.

In the vets' competition, the RMI team turned the tables on Preston, taking first place from them by only five points. Dave Milliken also won the MV50 category.

For the juniors, the under-15 boys’ team of Robert Seddon, Lewis Wilkes and Kieran Kinealy ran well for third place.

The top junior individual performances were in the under-13 category where Isabella Merritt was third in the girls’ race and Matthew Mair was sixth in the boys’ event.

Other encouraging performances came from Lucas Milliken and Martha Kay, making her cross country debut in the under-11s' race.

On the road, marathon specialist Richard Howarth had a storming race in the Chester Marathon, finishing 10th of 2,155 runners and claiming first MV40 place.

In the Queens Park junior parkrun, Matthew Flatters was first home followed closely by Isabella Merritt, who recorded a new personal best in third place.

She was just five seconds ahead of Finley Reid who had a fine debut.

Lydia Johnson also gained a top-10 finish in her first parkrun.

In senior parkrun, it was a Horwich junior that claimed the best performance of the week as under-14s runner Penny Townsend was first female home at Worsley Woods and 24th overall out of 281 runners.

Horwich RMI results: Rivington Trail Half Marathon – 85th Tony Hesketh 1:51:22, 162nd Kelly Laughton 2:03:51, 188th Stephen Cummins 2:09:00, 196th Julie Williamson 2:10:19; Coniston Trail Challenge – 404th Rachel Fallows 2:18:59; Mid Lancs Cross Country (Chorley) – 1st Chris Farrell 34:50, 18th Alastair Murray 39:11, 28th David Jackson 39:51, 38th Dave Milliken 40:40, 42nd Paul Massey 40:55, 142nd Steven Foley 47:40, 154th Michael Kay 48:41, 181st Mark Swindell 50:23, 224th Lawrence Pinnell 54:36; Littleborough 10k Road Race – 68th David Barnes 45:52; Chester Marathon – 10th Richard Howarth 2:39:46.