HORWICH'S Under-15s girls' team were the top Greater Manchester team at the North West Counties road relays at a wet Delamere Forest on Saturday.

The team of Georgia Heath, Eva Baldwin and Milly Lever finished fourth in the North West overall and Georgia was third fastest individual in the North West.

Such is the club’s strength at u15s level, the girls also fielded a B team to finish fifth in the GM competition.

The u15 boys' team of Toby Middleton, Lucas Milliken and Matthew Flatters took third place overall and were beaten only by Salford Harriers in the Greater Manchester competition.

Toby was second fastest individual in this age group in the North West.

The Harriers took a large and enthusiastic squad of young athletes to the event and there were promising debuts for the u11 and u13 boys' and girls' teams as well.

The u11 boys’ team of Sam Bradley, Harrison Stokes and Marty Arnot-Smith gained third place in Greater Manchester.

Coach Andy Townsend said the performances bode well going into the Northern Relay championships at SportCity on September 23.

On Sunday, Isabella Merritt and Alistair Sharrock both double gold-medalled at the Blackpool, Wyre and Fylde Open meeting, completing a great summer of track and field results for the two talented athletes.

At Blackleach Country Park in Walkden on Sunday, it was the latest round of the Central Lancs Grand Prix and Horwich did their series aspirations no harm by completing a one-two finish.

Sam Wardle and Nick Leigh were never more than two seconds apart throughout and they finished a minute-and-a-half ahead of the third-placed runner.

Kimberley Chadderton was third woman and husband Michael was fourth overall.

Michael is in close contest with Lawrence Pinnell for the club’s championship and this race gave him the edge.

This week also saw another of the club’s own races, this time the Downhill race from the Winter Hill mast to the Horwich RMI club.

On a fine and chilly evening it was Wardle from Leigh again, this time by 10 seconds.

Race director Ali Murray, fresh from Mont Blanc, took third place and Lindsey Brindle was first woman.

Some of the club’s vets had a good week with Rob Jackson finishing 39th in the big field at the Salford 10k, making it his third M50 title in succession at this race where he received his prize from the legendary Dr Ron Hill.

At the Wigan 10k, Lesley Davidson was second F65 and at Blackleach Peter Heneghan had a great run for second place in the M75 category, with Peter Scott (M70) and David Barnes (M60) doing similar in their age groups.

Meanwhile, the intrepid Steve Thomasson experienced a big coincidence with two half-marathons in eastern Europe.

In the Praski race in Warsaw last week, his time was 1hr 47mins 25secs and this week in Tallinn, Estonia, on a hillier course he was just one second faster.

In parkrun, Gareth Booth made one of his occasional forays on to Richard Howarth’s favoured terrain at Cuerden Valley where he prevailed by just five seconds.

Horwich RMI Harriers results: Wigan 10k road race – 111th Simon Vaughan 43:32, 181st Stuart Bolton 45:11, 610th Julie Williamson 53:14, 1,617th Lynn Smith 1:08:39, 1,620th Lesley Davidson 1:08:40;

Salford 10k road race – 39th Rob Jackson 38:12, 392nd Neil Holding 48:09;

Blackleach 4.8-mile trail race (Walkden) – 1st Sam Wardle 26:20, 2nd Nick Leigh 26:22, 4th Michael Chadderton 27:53, 34th Kimberley Chadderton 33:13, 55th David Barnes 34:38, 106th Lawrence Pinnell 39:07, 122nd Michelle Mortimer 40:53, 125th Peter Heneghan 41:12, 177th Peter Scott 49:50;

Ribble Valley half-marathon – 107th Kristina Mountain 2:48:43, 108th Justine Topping 2:48:43.