HORWICH Harrier Sophie Walton won the 200m at the Loughborough International track and field event to make it three individual victories for the club in a row.

Walton was selected for GB Juniors in both the 4x100m relay and the 200m. She ran a great 200m race in the outside lane usually less favoured by runners. But she has the confidence to run her own race due to the impressive preparation with coach Trevor Williams.

Her 23.43secs achieved the qualifying time of 23.60 for the World Under-20 Championships in Colombia in August and she now awaits news of selection.

Walton is ranked second for the 200m in the UK at u20 after Success Eduan of Sale Harriers beat her time later that day.

At the same event Ola Abidogun, bronze medallist at the 2021 European Para Championships, took second place with a season’s best of 11.33 in the 100m.

In midweek. it was the first in the Harriers’ Jubilee three-race series and there was a string of Horwich winners as Toby Middleton and Erica Booth won the individual prizes and led the Horwich men (Luke Foley, Paul Grundy and Nick Leigh) and women (Charlotte Wilkinson and Milly Lever) to first place in the team competitions.

Gareth Webb was first M65 and Tony Hesketh was first M70.

In the junior races, there were age-category wins for Charlie Cowburn (u11), Grace Freary (u11), Grace Mort (u13), Harry Yates (u13) and Ted Billington (u16).

The same evening at Blackstone Edge, it was the fourth fixture in the Run the Moors Grand Prix where the team championship is contested by eight clubs.

At the top of the table, Saddleworth, Rossendale and Horwich are split by only four points with seven more fixtures to go.

On the night, Horwich took second place in the men’s team race as Danny Hope finished second overall and there were top-10 places for Dan Gilbert and Matt Fawthrop with the team completed by Gary Chadderton, who also confirmed his first position in the series M60 category.

There was also a fine result by Jodie Adamson, who was fourth woman overall and Alison Mort was first F40.

Only three days later Hope, Gilbert and Fawthrop were among the 12 Harriers taking on the latest round in the English Fell Running Championships at Lower Borrowdale with more than 12 miles and 3,200 feet of ascent to contend with.

The Horwich men’s team were sixth of 16 clubs with Joe Mercer leading the team home, closely followed by Nick Leigh and James Kevan with another great run by Luke Foley in his first full year of fell competitions. The team will now be looking forward to the next round at Buckden Pike in June.

The next day it was the turn of the juniors to make the long trip for the fourth round of the English junior fell championships in the North Yorkshire Moors at Guisborough where top 10 results were taken by Louis Yates (u9), Harry Yates (u13) and Charlotte Wilkinson (u17).

The Great Manchester Run saw a team of Harriers providing marshalling support at the finish, led by Tony Hesketh who also ran the 10k and was first M70 in a time of 52mins 57secs.

Rob Jackson was fourth M55 in 39:21 and in the half marathon Richard O’Reilly had a great run to finish as third M50 in a time of 1:32:35.

In the junior race, Isabella Owen was 41st.

Steve Thomasson, in preparation for his half marathons across Europe, ran the Lancaster 3-1-5 10k and was pleasantly surprised to finish as the winner in a time of 45:59.