Harrier James wins on the road at Dentdale in improved time

At Chester, the MBNA Chester 10k incorporated the Masters 10k championship including an England versus Wales international race for which Gareth Webb was selected for England following a strong set of performances in 2022.

Webb was eighth out of 39 M65 runners and said he was chuffed to get that result having missed two preparation races due to chest infections.

On an undulating course, his time of 42mins 9secs showed he had not lost too much fitness.

On the road, there was also a win for James Kevan at the 7.9-mile Dentdale race. Kevan, who has many representative honours for Ireland, won the race this year in 42:39 – a significant improvement on his winning time in the same race last year of 44:06.

Meanwhile, at the UK Inter-Counties cross-country championships, at Prestwold Hall, near Loughborough, on a challenging muddy course, Luke Foley ran for Lancashire in the men’s event with the county packing a lot of runners in the frontrunners to take third team place.

Harrison Stokes represented Greater Manchester in the under-15 boys’ race as the county had a sixth-place result.

The Manchester Area Cross-Country League concluded for 2022/23 at Heaton Park.

The Horwich women’s team of Lindsey Brindle, Hayley Winder, Alison Mort and Helen Macdonald had a great result of eighth place out of 35 teams and the vets women were fourth out of 33 teams.

After an impressive season for the team, they finished second in the Ladies’ Division Three, gaining promotion to Division Two for next year.

The men’s team was not at full strength on the day but there were cracking runs from Joe Mercer, in third, Simon Bruton (13th) and Julian Goudge (18th).

Mercer ended up taking second place in the league series behind Nicholas Barry, of Sale Harriers Manchester.

Goudge won the series M50 category and Luke Foley was fourth in the men’s series, too.

Janet Rashleigh, also unavailable on the day, had done more than enough already to take the series L60 first prize again.

The men finished fourth in Division One – one point behind Salford Harriers.

It has also been the first year in which Horwich juniors have taken on the Manchester League and 14 turned out at the final fixture.

The u15 girls’ team of Grace Mort, Lois Bowl and Courtney Iredale were fourth team on the day.

Eleven Horwich juniors achieved series results, including Charlotte Wilkinson (fifth u17), Grace Mort (fifth u15), Harry Yates (11th u13) and Grace Freary (12th u11).

Some runners just love the challenge of long-distance events, Mark Seddon being one who does not just take on tough Lake District mountain events but was also this week on our local moors for the Two Crosses Challenge organised by the East Lancashire branch of the Long Distance Walkers’ Association.

Participants can choose to run or walk either the 17 or 25-mile course and for Seddon it was the long version in under five-and-a-half hours.

Meanwhile, Gary Chadderton and Steve Pearson took on the shorter course in 3:20:00 and 3:46:00 respectively.

The Haworth Hobble is also a popular event, usually over a course of 31 miles but this year due to heavy snow cover it was shortened to 21 miles.

The participants loved the experience, which like the Two Crosses features several nourishing refreshment points along the way.

Chris Gorton ran the race for the first time with race partner, Julie Townson, of Trawden. They finished in 5:19:46, taking 11th out of 21 teams in the MIX category.

In parkrun, Steve Jackson got a new personal best at Peel in Salford in 27:24.

On the parkrun tourist trail, Miriam Harrison ran the Parke course in Devon – a hilly, mixed-terrain course – and was second female in 25:32.

Richard O’Reilly was in Buckinghamshire for the Church Mead parkrun where he finished seventh in 21:28.