LYDIA Farley and Tina Riquelme have shown the future is bright for Bradford Airedale's women's endurance team.

Farley qualified for the English Schools' Cross-Country Championships with an eighth-place finish in the WEST YORKSHIRE SCHOOLS CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS at Silcoates School, near Wakefield.

She and Ilkley Harriers' international Lucy Williamson, who was fifth on Saturday, will both represent Bradford on the eight-strong county team for the nationals on March 14 in Blackburn.

Meanwhile, Riquelme – a recent arrival from Elche, near Alicante, and a theatre nurse at Bradford Royal Infirmary – encountered British-style cross-country for the first time at Bodington Fields in Adel.

Sunday's penultimate PECO LEAGUE race involved two laps of the Leeds playing fields and was comparatively runnable.

A couple of short climbs and stretches of mud were eased by the frost and blue skies. Nonetheless, Riquelme found the heavy ground a culture clash to the norm in Spain.

Nursing her own knee injuries, she still managed to be 18th of the 215 ladies – directly after Lesley Watson, the Bingley Harrier who second-claims for Saltaire Striders in this league.

Watson's own 107th place in the recent Northern Cross-Country Championships is a good guide for where Farley and Riquelme stand in senior terms.

In the team standings, with one race to go, Valley Striders have unassailable leads in the men's and women's Premier sections but Saltaire are third in both, with good chances to finish second.

In the men's event, they have been overhauled by an impressively revived St Theresa's outfit from east Leeds. But the Bodington host team, Hyde Park Harriers, have a chance of overtaking both at the Roundhay Park finale on Sunday, March 1.

Saltaire also have a good chance of overtaking Kirkstall Harriers at the death for silver in the women's competition.

Jen Willingham (25th), Laura Marchant (26th), Amanda Bellwood (43rd) and Tracy Foy (51st) made good in the absence of Steph Wilson.

Eccleshill Road Runners' men put in an excellent performance, led by youngster Taylor Waddell, to finish second in Division Two and haul them into a three-way tie with Wharfedale and Bradford-Airedale for fourth place in that grouping.