SKYRAC athlete Jonny Keith has bagged an amazing array of gold medals from the West Yorkshire Track and Field Championships.

The 23 year-old Ilkley Golf Club greenkeeper and personal trainer at Ilkley Tennis Club, has over an 11 year period entered 15 events at the championships and come away with 15 gold medals.

Coach Gordon Agar believes Burley-in-Wharfedale's Jonny is the only athlete to achieve this feat.

Amazingly his medals have not just come in his favoured 800 and 1500 metres for he also picked up a gold for the shot as a 13 year-old.

The 800 metre record of two minutes dead he set in 1995, breaking Mark Sessay's record, still stands.

Jonny is on a comeback after a spell out injured and hopes to do a full cross-country season as well as play some football with Ilkley AFC.

Otley Athletic Club

Otley Athletic Club competed with 28 other teams in the Yorkshire Six Stage Road Relay at Don Valley Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Neil Cayton was prominent on the first leg finishing sixth overall in 21.22 over the four mile circuit. Andrew Robertshaw ran a very good time on leg two recording 21.10 which kept the team in the same position.

Ian Fisher ran the second fastest time of the day on leg three improving the team's position to fifth in 19.38.

Julian Mawson was overtaken by Leeds City on his leg but was pleased with a time of 21.22. Howard Jeffrey took over on leg five and maintained the team's sixth position with 24.06.

Mick Jeffrey had the unenviable last leg and finished in 25.08 which meant that overall the team finished eighth.

The following day, two members competed in the Harrogate Theatre 10k which was won by Alan Stimpson from Harrogate Harriers in 33.49. Otley's Antonio Cardinale finished 159th in 51.37 and David Cattanach was not too far behind Antonio in 185th position (52.53). Howard Jeffrey was also competing at the Mileta 10 Mile Race, Cleckheaton on Sunday but official results are unknown at the time of writing.

This weekend the club will be represented at the Great North Run and Kirkstall Abbey 10km.

Training is as usual from Cross Green both tonight and Tuesday commencing at 7.15pm. Members are reminded that the AGM takes place at Cross Green next Thursday, 8pm. More details at www.otleyac.co.uk

Orienteering

Fresh from their success in the inter-club championships, the juniors orienteers from Airienteers have now won the premier relay competition in Britain - the Peter Palmer Relays.

The six-person team of Jack Wood, Hector Haines, Joe Mercer, Victoria Stevens, Chloe Haines, and Ben Stevens scorched round the Sutton Park course to win in 2hr 53m 37s to beat second-placed Deeside Orienteers by over 20minutes, and 30 other teams.

Joe Mercer and Victoria Stevens were the fastest runners on their the third and fourth leg respectively. Airienteers second team also acquitted themselves very well, finishing in 14th place in 4hrs 11m 28s. Team members were Alistair Everett, Elizabeth van Hee, Robert Kelly, Lowri Jones, Cerys Jones, and George Stevens.

Meanwhile runners from Airienteers who have been awarded their Championship Badge for consistently finishing within 25 per cent of the winner's time in major events such as the British Championship, and other National Events are:

Robert Kelly (M12), George Stevens (M14), Hector Haines (M16), Ben Stevens (M18), Neil Conway (M21), Steve Webb (M40), Peter Haines (M45), Victoria Stevens (W16), Ruth Jones (W45), Shirley Wood (W45).

This year, no other orienteering club in Britain has so many orienteers who have achieved this award. The next club event will be a District Event at Bingley St Ives on Sunday, October 3. Starts are from 10.30am to 12.30pm and there will be courses for all levels of ability. Details on the club website at www.aire.org.uk.

English Schools

Four local athletes had qualified from the North East Regional Championships to compete for West Yorkshire Schools in the English Schools AA Combined Events Championships and made the long journey to Devon to compete in the Exeter Arena.

Of the four, Horsforth's Bethany Staniland, of Leeds City AC and the Girls' Grammar School, Bradford, enjoyed the greatest success. Despite a near disaster in the long jump, she won bronze in the intermediate girls' (U-17) heptathlon with 4,469 points, although this score was 317 points below her AAA Championships Heptathlon result.

Her weekend began in the best possible way with personal bests in her two weakest events, the 80m hurdles and the high jump. In these she recorded marks of 12.53s and 1.51m to put her in an overall 14th place. A 10.83m shot putt moved her up to seventh and the first day finished with her in third place following a 25.87s for the 200m.

However, day two started with long jump run-up difficulties and Bethany had to settle for 4.75m, 70 centimetres and 200 points below her best. Nevertheless, she rallied in the javelin with a 34.14m throw and put in a tired 2.32.17 for the 800m to ensure the bronze medal out of 43 competitors.

As a result, Bethany has now earned her second England Schools vest and will represent England U-18 girls in the British Schools Indoor Pentathlon International at Glasgow's Kelvin Hall in December. She will compete in the 60m hurdles, shot, high jump, long jump and 800m against Wales, Scotland and an all Ireland team.

West Yorkshire took the intermediate girls' national team title.

By contrast her older brother Andrew (Leeds City and Leeds Grammar School) had a weekend of mixed fortunes. He had a dream start to day one of the senior boy's (U-19) decathlon with championship records in both the 100m (10.96s) and long jump (7.27m) but after his third long jump trial was forced to withdraw with a pulled hamstring - rather a disappointing end to what has been a very successful season for this U-20 international decathlete and long jumper.

In the junior boys' (U-15) pentathlon Ilkley's James Heaton (also of Leeds City) really excelled at this level and finished in an excellent eleventh position following five solid performances. After 13.44s in the 80m hurdles, he found himself in 34th position, out of the 39 championship qualifiers, but then there was a steady forward progression. An 11.30m shot putt and a 5.28m long jump moved him into 19th position.

His strongest event, the high jump provided a lever for an overall 10th place, following a 1.68m performance, and 2.25.49 for the 800m saw James finish comfortably in the top third of the best junior boys' pentathletes in England.

He was also rewarded with a team championship victory as West Yorkshire also took the U-15 boys' team title.

In the intermediate boys' (U-17) octathlon Menston's Fraser Davies (Leeds City) was always a force to be contended with and after the first three events was in an overall 7th position. The Guiseley School student achieved this with a 5.96m long jump, 33.66m discus and 44.78m javelin.

The final event of day one, the 400m, saw him move down to 12th following a 58.42s run. He then maintained a top 15 placing with 15.26s for the 100m hurdles, 1.68m for the high jump and 10.87m for the shot. However, a 5.35.45 for the final event, the 1500m, saw Fraser sink to 24th position; a very respectable position out of the 39 qualifiers.