Many of England's brightest prospects gathered at Barley Village last Sunday when Clayton-le-Moors Harriers hosted the fifth round of the English Junior Fell Championships and the fourth round of the English Under-20 Championships.

Ten Lancashire Championships were also at stake for the local contestants and that helped to attract 146 competitors, despite the almost constant drizzle.

The venue is now set to host the national championships for a third successive year in 2007 with a provisional date of June 20 being set.

The organising club got an early boost when one of their own, Helena Leathley, became the Lancashire Under-12 Girl Champion, and the local flavour continued with David Wilson taking the boys' county title in the same age group.

The race distances varied according to the age of the athletes, but they were all out and back courses via Buttock with the under 16s and below tackling a single climb followed by a downhill return.

The under 16s reached the trig point at the summit of Pendle Hill while the two older categories had to drop down and climb back again as the distance was extended to four miles.

What Helena and David had started, continued throughout the day as East Lancashire runners won seven Lancashire titles.

Although none of our locals were outright race winners, Beckie Taylor came close with second place in the girls' under 14 contest.

Blackburn Harrier Beckie won the Lancashire Championship though as Heather Parker of Rossendale took the bronze. Dale's Ashley Kay led home Sam Richards of Pendle in the boy's race.

It was a clean sweep for our area in the boy's under 16 race thanks to Richard Shuttleworth of Blackburn Harriers, Jack Thompson from Pendle and Rossendale's Phil Bolton.

One gold to leave East Lancashire was the under 16 girl's award, won by Lancaster's Hannah Bateson.

However, Blackburn's Rachel Searson and Emma Flanagan from Rossendale Harriers secured the other medals on offer. Carl Andrew from Dale and Anna Anderson of Pendle are the under 18 champions with England International Anna third outright in a competitive race behind Emma Clayton of Scunthorpe and Dionne Allen from Leigh.

There were non-championship events for the under 8s and under 10s with youngsters able to take part from the age of six. Rossendale prospects Marcus Preedy and Rebecca Flanagan were each fourth in the under 10s race.