HARRIERS triathlete Sam Wardle became British Elite Sprint Triathlon Champion with his win at the Hetton Lyons Super Saturday event.

Wardle has worked hard under the coaching direction of Lukas Siska, himself an international triathlete, who was thrilled with the Horwich star’s progress to this title.

Wardle commented after his triumph: “I kind of knew I would be able to outrun the competition.”

Last week started with the club’s Jubilee 5-mile road race – the final one of an exciting 2018 series.

Ben Fish won in great style to give Blackburn a one-two-three on the night.

Top Horwich runners were fine triathletes with James Scott Farrington narrowly ahead of Lukas Siska.

Erica Booth was first lady and there were category wins for Steve Williams (V60), Rudolf Maciejkowicz (V65) and Tony Hesketh (V70).

In the series, Christopher Davies, of Blackburn, and Joanne Knapman, of Manchester, were the winners.

Steve Williams took the honour as the highest Horwich runner in the series.

Elsewhere, Nick Leigh maintained his consistently high level of performance in challenging fell races by finishing 15th at the Snowdon International Mountain Race on Saturday in a quality field of more than 550 runners.

North Wales is a regular favourite terrain with Leigh – in 2011 as a V35 he was eighth in the Snowdonia marathon and now as a V40 he continues to turn out the results.

The previous week he was 14th in the Isle of Man Sea to Summit race in the English fell running championships.

Two Harriers turned out in the latest round of the Area Fell Grand Prix at Ingleborough where Dan Gilbert and Lawrence Pinnell, stalwarts of the Grand Prix races, strove to improve the Harriers’ position of fourth in the league of eight clubs.

Gilbert was pleased to win the V40 trophy at Ingleborough, especially when he found out his name will be joining that of club colleague Tony Hesketh on the trophy for his V40 win in 1991.

Hesketh, in great form, last weekend won another age-category prize, this time in the Towneley Park 10k road race where he scooped the V70 prize.

Also on the road, Steven Thomasson is usually running marathons in far-flung locations but this week he was at Media City, using the 5k Runthrough race to check on his speed and he was happy with his 14th place out of 142 runners.

The juniors were out in force at the third and final race of 2018 in the Street series.

In the under-11s' race, Ethan Davies, of Leigh, secured the series title with Sam Aspey, of Blackburn, second on the night and in the series.

Harrison Stokes was Horwich’s highest finisher on the night and in the series.

In the girls' series, Emma Bradley had to settle for second place after being beaten on the night by Libby Rickerby, of Chorley.

In the u15s' race, Matthew Flatters won the series with a clean sweep of victories.

Eva Baldwin also had to settle for second place in the girls' series despite beating the series winner, Grace Tosin, of Liverpool, on the night.

In parkrun, Lukas Siska was first at Haigh Woodland, while Richard Howarth was first at Cuerden Valley and Phil Marsden was the fastest parkrun Harrier this week with 16mins 14secs for second place at Newby Bridge.

Nigel Clementson, as a V55, was third at Newborough Forest.

Horwich RMI Harriers results: Jubilee 5-mile road race – 4th J Scott Farrington 27:02, 5th Lukas Siska 27:10, 25th Steve Williams 32:11, 32nd Erica Booth 34:46, 43rd Rudolf Maciejkowicz 36:30, 44th Ronnie Isaacs 36:38, 46th Tony Hesketh 36:48, 64th Lawrence Pinnell 40:21, 74th Peter Siska 43:23;

Runthrough Media City 5k – 14th Steven Thomasson 22:15;

International Snowdon Race – 15th Nick Leigh 1:12:22, 59th Alastair Murray 1:22:39, 94th Mark Walsh 1:27:02;

Ingleborough fell race – 16th Dan Gilbert 56:05, 173rd Lawrence Pinnell 1:22:23;

Towneley Park 10k – 111th Tony Hesketh 48:42;

Coniston Country Fair fell race – 72nd David Barnes 1:34:55;

Cracoe fell race (Yorks Dales) – 79th Jason Middleton 42:17.