YOUNG Horwich Harriers athletes represented their schools in Yorkshire last weekend and put in some excellent displays

In the Year 7 race in Settle, Ethan Isaacs ran well on the tough route to finish 21st boy in 15mins 42secs, while Lucas Collings also ran well for 43rd position.

The Years 7 and 8 ran the three-mile course with Milly Lever having a great race to finish ninth in 22:40.

Freya Whittle was 32nd in 25:13, despite suffering from asthma, and Lucas Milliken was 31st boy in 21:20.

Toby Middleton, recovering from injury, was 54th in the Year 8 race in 22:32, while in the Year 10 race Robert Seddon ran the tough five-mile course to finish 28th in 29:47.

The previous weekend Milly Lever completed the last of this year’s Abersoch Beach Races and retained her Beach Chief title from last year.

She finished third in the 3k race and won the 1k and 2k races to retain the under-16s' title.

Emma Bradley also competed in the last race, finishing second behind Milly and first u11 girl.

In Bolton last Thursday, Gareth Booth took second place in the third of the four-race Barrow Bridge Village 5k series, beaten only by Leigh’s Dave Smith.

Also running for Horwich, Steve Thomasson was aiming for a sub-23 minute time and achieved it comfortably.

He is a bit of a running globetrotter and felt sure he would be the only runner in the race wearing the prize shirt from the recent Praski half marathon in Warsaw.

Thomasson has also within the last year completed the Polar Circle Challenge with a marathon and half marathon in Greenland and he is off to the Aland Islands in the Baltic for another half marathon next month.

Last weekend saw the sixth and final leg of the 2017 Mountain Running World Cup where Ian Conroy ran for Ireland, but in a Horwich vest, and had a great result finishing 13th of 201 top mountain athletes.

He said: "It’s always great to wear the red and black in the Alps."

It was also the sixth and final leg of the English fell championships at Great Whernside where Nick Leigh and Phil Marsden had a ding-dong battle, with Leigh prevailing by a margin of one second.

In a competitive race, in which the top 40 all finished within four minutes of each other, the results will not improve the Horwich duo's position in the final standings but, along with four other Harriers, they gave the club a good presence in the race.

The last ever Run Preston 10k took place on Sunday and Paul Muller took the V60 first prize, finishing 19th in a field of nearly 1,200 runners.

In parkrun, Richard Howarth and Andy Lloyd were first home at Cuerden Valley and Haigh Woodland, respectively.

Two female juniors featured well with Ella Pendlebury second at Pennington Flash and Georgia Heath second at Worsley Woods.

At the Queens Park junior parkrun, it was a one-two finish for Horwich runners Isaac Battye and Aleksander Clayden. Other juniors took part in the Go Rivington triathlon event at the David Lloyd centre in Bolton, gaining cross-training experience.

Horwich RMI Harriers results: Three Shires fell race (Little Langdale) – 18th Simon Pymm 2:22:20, 48th Mark Walsh 2:33:59.

Barrow Bridge Village 5k road race series – 2nd Gareth Booth 17:11, 26th Steve Thomasson 22:42, 27th David Barnes 23:05, 66th Mark Dacre 29:20.

Great Whernside fell race (Wharfedale) – 32nd Nick Leigh 32:45, 33rd Phil Marsden 32:46, 96th Mark Walsh 38:03, 136th Graham Schofield 40:25, 161st Brian Walton 42:34, 203rd Steve Jackson 45:45.

Swinton 5.25-mile road race – 16th Michael Chadderton 32:02, 112th Gordon Stone 41:27, 132nd Lawrence Pinnell 43:37, 149th Julie Williamson 46:39.

Run Preston 10k road race – 19th Paul Muller 37:07, 223rd Geoff Leech 48:47.

Mountain Running World Cup (Bergen, Germany) – 13th Ian Conroy 47:16.