BLACKBURN Harriers’ men’s team produced a superb performance to power to two top-30 finishes at the National Cross Country Championships at a muddy Parliament Hill in London on Saturday.

The team finished 22nd out of 74 in the competition for the first six runners home and 28th out of 145 in the competition for the first nine runners home.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Leading the Harriers’ charge in the senior men’s race, which had more than 2,000 finishers, was Ben Fish.

He crossed the line in 43 minutes one second to finish in 81st place.

Fish was followed by Karl Billington in 127th in 44mins four secs and Rob Warner in 144th in 44mins 23secs.

In the fourth counting spot for the Harriers was the in-form Matt Nuttall in 225th in 45mins 39secs with the fifth place going to Chris Barnes who, having recently finished second in the Muddy Shoes 11-Mile Race, came 505th in 49mins 22secs.

He was followed by Paul Guinan, Harriers’ sixth counter, in 535th in 49mins 46secs, and Tony Greenwood who, in his first cross country race for the club since the 1980s, was 610th in a commendable time of 50mins 40secs.

John Sutton overcame a bug to claim 862nd spot in 53mins 12secs with Matt Wood Harriers’ ninth and final counter in 929th in 53mins 55secs.

Completing the club’s set was David Almond in 1,072nd in 55mins 32secs, John Chaplin in 1,250th in 57mins 34secs, and Andy Heys in 1,271st in 57mins 50secs.

Helen Leigh caught the eye in the 865-strong senior women’s race.

She finished 44th in 33mins 39secs, just 30 seconds outside of the top 25.

Jack Hindle got the club’s charge under way when finishing 96th in 39mins 11secs in the junior men’s race.