HORWICH’S Isaac Battye helped Greater Manchester’s Under-19s men to third team place at the inter-counties fell championships in the Yorkshire Dales.

Following on from Danny Hope’s selection for the county for the senior inter-counties’ championships, there were four junior Horwich runners in GM colours at Great Whernside.

And Battye had a great run over the full senior course, including the rocky scramble up Hag Dyke, to finish fourth and was GM’s first counter leading the team to third place.

In the u17 girls’ race, Charlotte Wilkinson and Emma Bradley helped GM to seventh place, with Wilkinson first counter for the county.

In the u15 girls’ race, Grace Mort earned her first county vest and was GM’s second counter as they finished sixth.

Alongside the inter-counties championships, there were open junior and senior races at Great Whernside.

In the senior race, Graham Schofield, despite a cramp on the descent, took first place for M60s who made up 10 out of the 47 runners.

In the junior races, there were an additional 11 Horwich runners from the Crossland, Irving, Mort, Titmuss, Wilkinson and Yates families who had made the long trip to give their children a great day of sport on the fells.

On Saturday, at Stretford, it was the Greater Manchester County Track and Field Championships.

Horwich had just four athletes competing and came away with five gold and two silver medals.

Ben Hall had a great run in the 1500m, winning in a time of just over five minutes, while Sophie Walton’s 200m was a straight final which she won in a season’s-best time of 29.97secs. She will now be looking forward to taking part in the Loughborough International event.

At u13, Joel Ige and Chidera Ajet collected a haul of six medals.

In the 150m final, Joel won in a time of 18.81 with Chidera second in 19.95.

Those places were also replicated in the 75m final, but in the long jump Chidera won with a massive 4.82m leap with Joel in second.

At the Lancashire County Track and Field championships, Horwich had one representative with Ryan McCaffery taking second place in heat one of the u15 100m, setting a new personal best. In the final, he equalled that time for fifth place.

On the road, Rob Jackson had a fine seventh place in the Run through 10k at Aintree racecourse, and won the M55 first prize, continuing a great run of performances.

In the Essar Chester half marathon, Chris Essex-Crosby had his fastest half marathon time in 10 years with 1hr 35mins 30secs.

In midweek, the Wholan Nook trail race was the third fixture of the Pendle and Burnley Grand Prix.

Horwich had five runners, with Paul Boardman and Doug Fleming taking third and fourth places in the M60 category.

In parkrun, Chris Charnley had recovered well from the trail race to be the sixth finisher at Haigh Woodland.