GOLDEN girls Lauren Howarth and Hannah Warburton scored victory in the London Marathon on Sunday.

They helped their junior Greater Manchester squad to glory in the mini event.

Running against the cream of the nation's young stars, the two Leigh Harriers U13s were spurred on by the crowds lining the three mile city centre course.

Both stayed with the leaders from the gun to finish a magnificent fourth and sixth in a field of 90 athletes representing the best from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Lauren's grandfather and harriers' stalwart Derek Howarth, was also in medal winning form in the National Veterans' Championships in Scotland.

The reigning Northern Counties champion lifted bronze in the over 70s event, beating off challenges from current international runners.

The Leigh U13s girls' squad kept up a winning weekend taking their first victory for years in a national young athletes' road relay.

The team was in outstanding form at Sutton Park with Hannah Warburton running the first 2000m leg in 8min 52sec to hand over to Lauren Howarth in fourth place.

Lauren ran the fastest time of 8min 47sec on the second leg handing over to Kristy Hogan who ran her heart out to clock 10min 03sec for the final leg to finish 14th and give Leigh the win they worked for.

In the over 15 event Rebecca Howarth ran 9min to complete the first leg in 32nd place passing to E Morris who finished the second leg in 10min 24sec to put Leigh into 63rd spot.

Gemma Farley pulled the girls back to a top 50 place with a good 9min 14sec leg.

The B team of Amanda Fearnley (9min 57sec), Danielle Eckersley (10min.06sec) and Kellie Thornton (10min 26sec) finished 68th.

The U15 boys found the going tough over the 3k course. Andy Edwards finished the first leg in 74th in a time of 14min 33sec. He was followed by Carl Tenant who gave a good account of himself in his first national event to run 15min 27sec for 78th spot. On the third leg Tom Henders improved the team placing to 68th with a time of 14min 23sec.

The U17 boys finished 30th after Tom Boardman led the team off running the 3.5k in 12min 37sec for 15th. Alex Urmston took the second leg in 26th place in 13min 18sec and Sam Cooke on the last leg came home in 13min 56sec.