HORWICH'S Mike Cayton represented England in the Great Birmingham 10k at the weekend, finishing a superb eighth overall, which was the highest V35 category finisher.

Cayton was beaten only by athletes in the senior (younger) age category and was also well ahead of the runners selected to represent the north in the open-age category.

It was a hot day so the times were not spectacular but this result is yet another big step back to international honours for Cayton who, more than 15 years ago, ran for England and Great Britain in mountain running championships.

In Chorley, in the first of the four-race trail series, Richard Howarth was triumphant, beating off some fast and younger competitors.

Steve Williams was first home in the V60 category and Dave Jackson joined Howarth and Williams to bring Horwich home second behind Blackburn.

Several of the Harriers doubled up in the last week with Julie Williamson setting a great example by running the Lakeland 17k Trail at Staveley on Saturday and then completing the Horwich Triathlon in style on Sunday.

Harriers’ Julian Goudge was 11th at the Horwich Triathlon, albeit in his Horwich Tri club colours, while Layne Mercer did compete for the Harriers and took the second prize in the MV50 category.

Erica Booth and Lukas Siska joined up with Chris Gaskell to do a relay entry in the Horwich Triathlon and were first relay team with Lukas recording the fastest run split on the day.

Tony Hesketh ran at the chilly Chorley race and then took the V65 prize in the heat at the Wray fell race.

Hesketh, as junior fell coach, also took a squad of youngsters, including Isaac Battye who had been first M12 at Astley Park and then was first under-13 boy at Wray.

Milly Lever was first female junior at Astley Park and then second u15 girl at Wray, where Imogen Andreassen had an exceptionally fast run to beat her.

There were also one-twos at Wray in the u9 girls (Fern O’Brien and Gracie Sherbourne split by less than a second) and in the u13 girls Freya Whittle regained form and pipped Emma Bradley, who had won her age group at Chorley. Also on the fells Toby Middleton was second u15 at Coiners.

The overall junior winner at Astley Park was Matthew Flatters, who showed grit and speed when it mattered to beat Jake Dickinson from Liverpool Pembroke Sefton.

They were in a great ding dong race all the way around the course with Matthew prevailing by one second.

There were more junior successes elsewhere with Matthew second in the 1500m on the track at the Trafford AC medal meeting where Alistair Sharrock won gold at both 75m and 150m and Isabella Merritt got personal bests in second place at both 300m and 800m, having been second female at the Worsley Woods parkrun.

Last week was the first Youth Development League in 2018 for u17s and u20s at Bury.

Eleven Harriers took part, including u17s athletes Adrian Bakowski and Chloe Brewin, who were competing for the first time.

Everyone gave excellent performances, with four first positions, four second places and 16 personal bests.

With a relatively small team, Horwich still finished sixth of eight teams and coach Trevor Williams was keen to applaud not just the athletes but also the parents who supported the team.

Horwich RMI Harriers results: Astley Park trail race (Chorley) – 1st Richard Howarth 24:44, 12th Dave Jackson 27:06, 18th Steve Williams 28:33, 46th David Barnes 32:17, 52nd Ronnie Isaacs 33:10, 59th Tony Hesketh 33:50, 90th Clair Cunningham 37:27;

Coniston fell race – 210th David Barnes 2:07:56;

Liverpool Spring 10k – 39th Neil Holding 37:34;

Horwich Triathlon – 38th Layne Mercer 2:04:28, 107th Ian Hamer 2:15:43, 215th Geoff Leech 2:29:28, 298th Kelly Laughton 2:42:36, 412th Julie Williamson 3:15:12;

Wray fell race – 39th Tony Hesketh 59:52, 79th Gordon Stone 1:13:26;

Coiners fell race (Mytholmroyd) – 8th Michael Chadderton 53:10, 15th Dan Gilbert 55:03, 58th Gary Chadderton 1:06:12, 67th Doug Fleming 1:08:00, 80th Mark Seddon 1:09:29, 141st Lawrence Pinnell 1:22:10.