THE winning run for Horwich Harriers continued after member Luke Foley won the Leo Pollard Memorial Fell Race hosted by Lostock AC.

Foley is relatively new to fell running and this was his first win.

On the 7.5-mile course he tracked the frontrunners up to Henderson’s End on Winter Hill, and then had a strong section from the mast to the Pike to finish a clear winner by more than a minute from the second-placed runner.

This race was also the fifth fixture in this year’s Run the Moors Grand Prix with eight clubs contesting the prizes.

Foley’s win, combined with Gary Chadderton’s M60 category victory and Tony Hesketh’s M70 result, gave Horwich the maximum 150 points for the men’s championship, moving them above Saddleworth into second place and only two points behind Rossendale with another six fixtures to go.

Jodie Adamson and Alison Mort also gained valuable points for Horwich in the ladies’ championship.

The previous evening it was the second fixture in the three-race Astley Park trail series in Chorley where Julian Goudge, who last won the series in 2017, followed up his second place in the May fixture with third to put him in second place for the series this year. He also won the M50 category.

Steve Williams and Paul Boardman were left chasing former Horwich man, Paul Muller, for the M60 prize, while Bernadette Unsworth was third F50.

In the junior race, there were several category first places for Horwich runners including Lucas Collings (M16), Charlotte Wilkinson (F15), Lois Bowl (F13) and Millie Rawlinson (F8).

Back on the fells and as he likes to, Dan Gilbert was taking on the longer Lakeland classic races, this time the Duddon Valley long course of 18 miles and 6,000 feet of ascent for the first of this year’s Lakeland Classics Trophy races.

Gilbert said clubmate Matt Fawthrop left him behind on the final climb up to Caw as he completed his first super long classic fell race in the Lakes in 49th place with a time of just under four hours, with Gilbert trailing in nine minutes later.

On the road, Steve Thomasson has at last resumed his tours of the European half marathons and in his first since before lockdown, he achieved a very respectable time of 1hr 53mins 11secs at one of the most northerly courses in the world. He was 23rd out of nearly 200 brave souls who weathered 30mph winds that he said even the polar bears took shelter from.

At parkrun, Richard Pollitt was also flying the Horwich colours on an international stage at the Bushy parkrun in Dublin where he was second runner home, given the same time, 18:05 as the first runner.

Dominic McKenna was one second slower in finishing third at Alexandra, Moss Side and Gareth Webb was 18th at Stretford and his time of 19:26 gave him an impressive 86 per cent age grading.

In junior parkrun, at Queens Park, Bolton, Louis Yates was third in a new personal-best time of 9:50.