VIRTUOSO performances by Mary Wilkinson and Jonny Pawson resulted in a brilliant double for Skipton Athletics Club in last Sunday's fell-racing championship extravaganza staged over the Wrekin Hills in Shropshire (writes Roger Ingham).

In what was arguably the club's finest hour, Wilkinson - representing Yorkshire in the UK Inter-counties Championship - stormed to a runaway victory in one of the fastest times ever recorded.

Only world champion Carol Greenwood - by 17 seconds in 1986 - had ever bettered the 41 minutes 4 seconds which the Skipton star recorded for the 5.5 miles course over 1,700 feet of elevation last Sunday.

Although Skipton athletes have won titles up to and including under-20 level, Wilkinson's mighty conquest brought the local club its first ever national title at senior level.

She has now put herself in the front line for a place in the England team to compete for the World Mountain Running Trophy in New Zealand in September.

Wilkinson's triumph also laid the foundations for Yorkshire winning its first ever senior women's team title in this prestigious event.

A Skipton club member also figured for Yorkshire as the White Rose county completed a winning double by also lifting the senior men's team title. Stuart Hunn, on his Yorkshire senior debut, finished in the top 30 in what was a three-figure field. This also left him third in the under-20 category, won by Wirrall AC's Jonny Mellor, which was part of the English Junior and Intermediate Championship six-race series.

There was another individual Skipton triumph as former UK uder-14 champion Jonny Pawson stormed home to win the English Championship under-16 boys' event. James Kelly added to Skipton's glory by finishing runner-up in what was one of the revelations of the day.

Having rarely made the top ten of a championship event, Kelly upstaged his competitiors, including England international Max Jones, of Holmfirth, who finished third. Last year's under-14 England champion, James Mountain, who is Pawson's cousin, finished eighth while Ingleton's Ben Morphet - in the colours of Cumberland Fell Runners - finished tenth.