A HOST of Horwich athletes hold series leads after the latest South East Lancashire Cross Country League event at Leigh Sports Village on Saturday.

James Scott Farrington took second place on the day and his two second places have earned him the lead in the series.

Also with a leading series place is Isaac Battye at under-11, who has had two successive wins at Tandle Hill and now at Leigh.

Ella Pendlebury took second place for the girls at u15 on Saturday and similarly leads the series with Milly Lever hot on her heels in second.

Lewis Wilkes’ first place means he has also now won two races at u17s' level and has a clear series lead.

The u13 boys and u11 girls had the best team results on Saturday, with Battye leading Ethan Isaacs and Lucas Collings into second team place and the girls team of Emma Bradley, Imogen Andreassen and Charlotte Wilkinson were also second on the day.

Elsewhere, in the Calderdale Long Distance Walking Association’s Hebden Challenge event, Andy Ford ran the short course of 14.1 miles to achieve second place and was actually third in the long course at the point at which the short course finished.

He then took part in the Todmorden Harriers mini mountain marathon the following day.

Ford was not the only Harrier doing two events at the weekend as David Barnes ran the Leigh cross-country race and then on Sunday took on the second round in the Kendal Winter League at Giggleswick.

He was the third MV60 finisher on Sunday and now holds second place in that age category in the league series.

There was a welcome return to racing for family team Nick and Sandra Kelly at Helsby for the Essar road half-marathon, where England international Ben Fish, of Blackburn – a fine winner of the Harriers’ Jubilee race in August 2017 – had a great win in 1hr 9mins.

Dan Gilbert made a 2018 debut on the fells and will have been pleased with his seventh place at Mytholmroyd.

In parkrun, Nick and Sandra Kelly had prepared for their Sunday half marathon finishing fourth man and fourth woman at the Marple parkrun.

Richard Howarth was first again at Cuerden Valley and Suzanne Budgett continued her tour of North West parkruns with first place for the women at Wythenshawe.

Horwich RMI Harriers results: The Hebden Challenge Event – 2nd Andy Ford 2:19:37.

South East Lancs Cross Country League (Leigh Sports Village) – 2nd James Scott Farrington 34:55, 89th David Barnes 46:33, 115th Lawrence Pinnell 50:13, 138th Gordon Stone 55:56.

Vocation Mytholmroyd fell race – 7th Dan Gilbert 58:20.

35th Essar 4 Villages half marathon (Helsby) – 161st Nick Kelly 1:30:22, 514th Sandra Kelly 1:44:57.

Giggleswick School fell race – 114th David Barnes 35:26.