Horwich Harriers took a squad of 26 junior athletes to Bury AC for the second round of the lower age group North West Division Three Youth Development League and put in some fine displays.

Club chairman, Glynne Lever, said the performances were great “and most importantly team spirit was a credit to the club” as race officials also commended the way the Horwich juniors conducted themselves.

The division has six clubs and Horwich this week finished second with 320 points behind Warrington on 419.

In the series, Horwich remain in a strong second place - also behind Warrington - so in the promotion stakes there is all to play for at the next two fixtures.

The under-13 girls had the biggest turnout, performing superbly throughout the day. Maddison Wilkinson and Kaitlyn Rhodes started the day running well in the 70m hurdles and then Charlie Cowburn and Luke Perry gained more points for the team in the 75m hurdles. Further good performances followed by u13s Lily Mort, Holly Turner, Luke Perry and Oscar Burke.

There were four u15 boys and Seb Smallridge and Dhilan Jacobs covered many events, while the u15 girls, Olivia O’Connor and Olive McKenna, won both the A and B shot events, with Olivia getting a massive personal best throwing 9.39m.

The performance of the day went to u13 Matthew Macdonald who did three events - long jump, 1200m and the 4x100 relay - in 40 minutes.

All four squads got a relay team together where they all managed to get the baton round and gained more points for Horwich.

It was also the Northern U20 and Seniors Championships at SportCity, in Manchester and Horwich had two u20 athletes competing.

Jayden Riley ran in the 100m on Saturday, easily qualifying for the final in a PB time of 11.16secs. In the final, he ran a fine race taking second place in 11.18 and picking up the silver medal. On the Sunday, Riley returned for the 200m along with Sophie Walton, also running the 200m. Both dealt with heats and a final, and each won their heats with Riley setting a new PB time of 22.67. In the finals, Walton stormed the bend, took the lead and finished comfortably in first place in 23.81. She is now the 200m indoor and outdoor Northern champion. Riley was just pipped on the line into fourth place in the final, setting another PB of 22.63.

On the fells, several seniors are putting in regular consistent performances.

Suzanne Budgett and Neil Holding followed up their Hutton Roof Crags results last week with impressive outings. Budgett was second woman in the 20k Yomp Mountain challenge from Kirkby Stephen in hot breezy conditions, while Holding was second M60 in a time of 1hr 4mins 48secs at the Pen y Ghent fell race, where the limestone and millstone grit terrain is unforgiving on the feet and throws the heat back up in your face.

Last midweek, Lostock AC’s Leo Pollard Memorial fell race took place over seven-and-a-half miles and 1,400 feet of ascent. It is a tough one for a B grade race as it includes long runnable stretches that make you race.

Sam Fairhurst continued his fine run of races with second place behind Bury AC’s Ben Coop. Matt Fawthrop followed up his recent Shepherd’s Crook result with a fine ninth place and Tony Varley was first M75.

Tony Hesketh took yet another M70 category win in the Coppice fell race at Accrington.

The Pendle and Burnley Grand Prix offers a varied range of races on fell, trail and road and last week it was the Kelbrook fell race where Paul Boardman was third out of 14 M60s, enhancing his series podium chances - as did David Barnes with his third M65 place, albeit in a much smaller category of only four runners.

In parkrun, another of the club’s vets, Ed Swift in the M75 category, is making a welcome return to running events following heart surgery and this week completed his second parkrun at Haigh woodland since his operation.

Rob Jackson, who is a relative newcomer to the pleasures of parkrun, was at Alexandra Parkrun in Moss Side where he equalled his parkrun best ever time of 18:15 and achieved his best ever age grading of 85.66 per cent.

Some runners are avid parkrun tourists and it is an international phenomenon as this week Gail Maxfield demonstrated by running the Caffarella Parkrun, near Rome.

Janet and Jason Middleton are making a big bid to win the club’s parkrun tourist competition as this week they added the Preston Parkrun to their roster this year.