The Snowdon Mountain Race (ten miles and 3300 feet) is an international event and the 411 entries included runners from Italy, France, Slovenia, Poland and one female and two male English teams.

At best storming down the rocky path trashes your legs but a fall can cause more serious damage with runners arriving at the finish with blood streaming from face to ankles.

Nevertheless with a first prize of £650 there was no shortage of entries and the cream of English mountain running was present in England vests last Saturday, including past multiple winner Ian Holmes (Bingley).

Ian's reputation has been built on his awesome descending ability and it is routine for Ian to improve half a dozen places on the return to secure a podium position.

It was the same story last weekend when Ian was 9th at the summit and first at the finish after a breathtaking descent in 21.38 in which he clawed back a two minute deficit to the French Champion Julien Rancon to beat him into second place by half a minute.

If Ian was engaged in virtually any other sport he would now be world famous and wealthy. But then if fellrunners wanted to live in the elite world of sporting millionaire prima donnas they would not choose to be fellrunners.

With the cream of fellrunning at Snowdon it was a day for lesser lights to shine as at the Turnslack Race (8/2000) where Darren Kay (Horwich) was the winner in 1:07:08. For Skyrac Martin Farrar was 48th (1:20:45) and Malcolm Coles 78th (1:30:05) in a field of 100 runners.

The Holme Moss race (16/4000) has twice the length and height of Turnslack and despite the drizzle it attracted Duncan Asquith and Robert Pritchard who finished in 31st (3.01) and 35th (3.10) respectively but around 15 minutes slower than in 2003 when the weather was somewhat kinder.

You can get in touch with Skyrac via www.Skyrac.org.uk or 01943 874046.

Junior League

In the fourth and final match of the Pennine Division of the National Junior League, both Leeds City AC's under-20 teams confirmed their status as league champions at a cold and wet Longford Park Stadium, Manchester.

For the women, Horsforth athlete Bethany Staniland, 16, was in sparkling form with three individual victories and a key part in the victorious 4 x 400m relay team.

Her day began with victory and a personal best in the 100m in 12.9s. This was closely followed by a winning throw of 34.75m in the javelin.

No sooner had the javelin ended than Bethany ran another PB with 58.3s securing maximum points in the 400m.

She then ran the second leg of Leeds 4 x 400m-relay team that had a close tussle with Bingley Harriers but emerged in first place in 4 mins.09.8s.

Also in the women's team, Emma Shaw was a big points earner in the other three throws. She was second in both the discus (34.54m) and the shot (10.24m) as well as achieving a third place in the hammer with 25.82m.

In these throwing events, Emma faced a stiff challenge from Skyrac AC's Amy Howard, who competes in this league for Bingley Harriers in a second claim capacity.

She produced a personal best performance to win the shot with 10.51m and then also achieved victory in the discus with 36.12m. She was also fourth in the hammer with 21.03m.

Amy then ended her day with a strong third leg in the second placed Bingley 4 x 400m quartet (4 mins.17.8s).

In the Leeds men's team Andrew Staniland put in some useful practice in four of the decathlon events before flying out to Bordeaux (France) to represent the Great Britain Under 20 Combined Events team in the decathlon against France, Germany and Switzerland.

Victories in both the shot (12.98m) and the discus (39.44m) were backed up by a second position in the 110m hurdles in the equal personal best time of 15.8s and a third place in the 100m in 11.5s.

He also ran the second leg of the second placed 4 x 100m Leeds team (47.8s).

The final Pennine League tables are as follows: Women - 1, Leeds City AC 20 points; 2, Bingley Harriers 14; 3, Nestle Rowntrees AC 12; 4, Rotherham Harriers 9; 5, Spenborough AC 5.

Men - 1, Leeds City AC 24 points; 2, Trafford AC 20; 3, Rotherham Harriers 15; 4, Bingley Harriers 11; 5, Nestle Rowntrees AC 8; 6, Spenborough AC 6.

Leeds City will now contest the promotion match with the other regional league winners for entry into the Northern Premier Division of the National Junior League. This match is at Cleckheaton's Princess Mary Stadium on August 29.

Andrew third

Seventeen-year-old Andrew Staniland of Horsforth was also in action in the Midlands, at Solihull.

As the North of England senior men's long jump champion he represented the North in the England Inter-Regional match against the South and the Midlands.

In difficult blustery conditions he was a little below his best of 7.44m and finished in third place with a leap of 7.02m.

Ilkley Harriers

Ilkley Harrier Sue Bickerdike ran in Sunday's Burton Leonard 10K, part of the Black Sheep Brewery series.

It was a tough course - undulating, mixed surface and uphill from three miles, and Sue ran about 50min 25 secs for 12th lady.

In the Corn Dolly Folly, 27 miles over a hilly part of the Yorkshire Wolds, Amanada Parnaby and Barbara Bullock ran 6h28

Last Wednesday saw the culmination of the Harrogate Road Race League, with a handicap race at Ripon, and amongst the 142 runners were 24 Harriers.

Their positions were: 4, 45:52 Richard Gray; 19, 43:04 Phil Hirst; 20, 44:05 Keith Wood; 31, 47:00 Suzanne Bickerdike; 35, 50:03 Elaine Cossins; 39, 41:08 Peter Shields 44, 45:22 Vince Gibbons; 52, 44:05 John Woodward; 57, 56:41 Heather Duke; 68, 55:52 Julie Ratcliff; 71, 40:56 Jamie Hutchinson; 73, 42:01 Peter Murray; 76, 39:03 David Jepson; 79, 38:38 Neil Chapman; 90, 47:59 Diane Haggar; 95, 45:04 Elizabeth McCann; 108, 43:53 Andy Webster; 114, Bernie Gibbons; 115, Brian Sweet; 116, Margot Dale; 117, Alison Bennett; 120, Richard Midgley; 129, Amanda Parnaby; 136, Mandy Chapman; 139, Daisy Hartley.

Afterwards the ladies were collecting the silverware: first ladies team (for the fifth year), first lady vets team, and Alison Bennett is showing that running makes you younger - after winning the Lady Vet 40 trophy two years in a row, this year she beat all the lady Vet 35s to take that trophy.

Ilkley Harriers is a very friendly club, training from Ilkley Lawn Tennis and Squash Club every Tuesday at 7pm. See www.ilkleyharriers.co.uk for more information.

Leading athletes

AFTER the penultimate meeting, of seven, of the Complete Runner West Yorkshire Track and Field League Local athletes Matthew Wagner and William Prest are first and second in the Under-11 Boys League with 72 points and 36 points respectively. James Heaton lies in a close 4th place in the Under-15 boys' league with 27 points. After the seven meetings, trophies are presented to the top three individuals in each age group.