A STRONG Horwich team put in arguably their best ever performance at the Northern Cross Country Championships, finishing fifth over 12k at Knowsley Safari Park.

The Harriers group finished ahead of 45 other clubs from across the north of England on 275 points – just 42 points off a podium place.

Chris Farrell continued his rich vein of form and finished just 22 seconds off a podium position in fifth overall, while Ian Conroy flew in from Dublin to compete.

In the women’s race, Janet Rashleigh returned from a series of Australian parkruns to finish 73rd out of 350 runners.

The next stop is the national championships in Nottinghamshire on February 25, where Horwich hope to have several runners, and then the inter-counties in Leicestershire where Michael Cayton has already achieved selection for Greater Manchester and there might be further representation from Horwich after this result from both the seniors and the juniors. For the juniors the best Horwich team result came from the under-13 boys who took sixth place in a field of 25 clubs. Individually, Toby Middleton’s 34th place for the boys and Eva Baldwin’s 41st place for the under-13 girls were the standout performances.

The following day in the Mast 10k mixed terrain race on Smithills Moor, Farrell made his intentions very clear from the start as he headed the 251 competitors over the tough route to Winter Hill mast, ascending more than 1,000 feet.

He finished more than two minutes ahead of second-placed Gareth Booth, while Dan Gilbert came in sixth to give Horwich the team prize.

Graham Schofield is taking on the Kendal Winter League series of fell races in the Lakes this year and he picked up the MV60 first prize at Giggleswick before finishing second in his age category at Whitestone last weekend.

Indoors, Sophie Walton got a season-best in winning the 60m sprint and Niall Maloney also achieved a season's best in taking second in the long jump event at SportCity in the Sale Harriers open track and field meeting.

In parkrun Lukas Siska and Paul Muller yet again took first places at Haigh Woodland and Lytham Hall respectively. Lindsey Brindle was also first woman home at Bolton.

Horwich RMI Harriers results: Northern XC Champs (Knowsley Safari Park) – senior women – 73rd Janet Rashleigh 37:20; senior men – 5th Chris Farrell 42:19, 32nd Michael Cayton 44:43, 48th Nick Leigh 45:41, 50th Ian Conroy 45:42, 69th James Kevan 46:44, 71st Tim Ellis 46:50, 103rd Phil Marsden 48:16, 124th Simon Pymm 49:22, 138th Jonathan Bruton 49:56, 156th Alastair Murray 50:34, 180th David Milliken 51:29, 190th Michael Hallas 51:39, 284th Chris Essex-Crosby 54:59; u20 men – 54th Luke Massey 31:53; u13 girls – 41st Eva Baldwin 13:10, 52nd Isabella Merritt 13:19, 110th Milly Lever 14:08, 164th Alyssia Jackson 15:13, 170th Freya Whittle 15:18; u13 boys – 34th Toby Middleton 12:12, 46th Lucas Milliken 12:24, 56th Matthew Mair 12:30, 85th Isaac Simmonite 12:53, 100th Nathan Lancaster 13:11; u15 boys – 77th Luke Brindle 16:10; Hunters 10k road race (Preston) – 208th Gillian Smith 55:56; Mast 10k mixed terrain race (Smithills Moor) – 1st Chris Farrell 36:17, 2nd Gareth Booth 38:32, 6th Dan Gilbert 42:39, 206th Julie Williamson 1:10:17, 207th Mark Dacre 1:10:20, 239th Ed Swift 1:23:42; Giggleswick School fell race (Settle) – 38th Graham Schofield 27:23, 172nd Gordon Stone 37:20; Whitestone Fell race (Newby Bridge) – 44th Graham Schofield 39:27.