After Storm Darragh wreaked havoc upon the previous weekend’s fixtures, a calmer forecast was welcomed by Horwich Harriers who were in action this week.

The Joe Galvin Stadium in Leigh hosted the Greater Manchester Cross Country Championships last Saturday and once again, the RMI’s juniors shone, picking up some fantastic results including two new regional champions being crowned.

Kitty Crossland was victorious in the under-13 girls’ race, winning by 10 seconds in 12mins 5secs, while Isaac Battye put the massed ranks from regional titans Sale and Salford to the sword in the U20s men’s race. His time of 21:46 was 19 seconds ahead of second place.

In an incredibly competitive U17 men’s race, the top five all finished within 10 seconds, Harrison Stokes just three agonising seconds short of the podium, stopping the clock in 15:33.

Another great result saw Harry Yates finish eighth (13:37) in the U15 boys, while in the U20 women’s race, Charlotte Wilkinson (sixth, 19:49), Alice Tucker (11th, 21:42) and Emma Bradley (12th, 22:30) joined forces once more to finish as second team.

Not perturbed by a lack of veterans’ rankings, V70 Mary White took to the turf in the senior women’s race, finishing 28th in 36:19, while Mark Tucker (51st, 44:46) and David Barnes (61st, 52:02) were the only senior men in attendance.

Ryan Snee was taking no chances with the fickle British meteorology, jetting off to Malaga to clock a sensational marathon PB of 2:36:50. The Ironman triathlete temporarily hung up his speedos and bike to focus all of his efforts on a marathon training block, a decision which paid dividends.

Elsewhere, Glynne Lever pulled on the red and black for the first time in a while after stepping away from an incredibly successful stint as chairman of the club. Lever stopped the clock at 46:20 at the Run Aintree 10k, sneaking into the top 10 in his MV50 category in the process.

Adrian Bramham sated his appetite for testing road races at the undulating, partially off-road Stockport 10-mile race. He continued his string of good results by picking up third place MV60, completing the course in 1:04:53.

On the trails, Steph Mckee took on the greasy paths around Sale and Chorlton water parks at the Big Xmas Half Marathon. She was sixth female and 27th overall with a great time of 1:49:44.

It was back to business as usual for parkrun after most local fixtures were called off the previous week. Picking up where he left off was the metronomic Rob Jackson, who clocked 18:34 once more at Peel Park to secure eighth overall, first V55 and first in age grading.

Luke Foley was first finisher (16:58) at Stretford, with Jason (24:34) and Janet (31:38) Middleton also running. Haigh was another family affair with Paul (27:21) and Jeanette (28:17) Lewis in attendance.

Richard O’Reilly showed well at Bolton, netting a course PB of 21:45 to take the victory in the MV50-59 and 10th overall at his 50th parkrun.