SUPER-FIT runner Rob Jebb has won one of the toughest prizes in the world of athletics - the Buff Skyrunner championship.

The seven race series includes the toughest mountain aces in the world and ended with the Mount Kinabalu International Climbathon through the jungles of Borneo last weekend.

The seven races took place on three continents and involve over 3,000 athletes from 22 countries. Each runner's best four finishes were taken into account for the overall championship.

Jebb went into the final race, the steepest in the series, with a slender lead. But the Mount Kinabalu race is a 21k (13-miles) endurance challenge in which runners have to race through jungle paths and up steep rock faces to the top of the 4,095m peak.

As they went into the final event any of the top five in the championship could take the title.

Jebb had already clocked up two victories, winning the first race held at Zegama in Spain.

The Bingley Harriers athlete gave a warning to other competitors that he mean business as he finished in 3 hours 54 minutes 18 seconds, slicing 12 minutes off the previous record time.

The second race followed an ancient smugglers route over the Alps between Italy and Switzerland and this time Jebb took second place, but still broke the previous record time for the event.

As the series progressed runners headed for the Italian Dolomites and a course which proved even more testing over jagged peaks with fixed ropes along the most dangerous sections. The event was delayed while snow and ice conditions on the mountain tops were checked.

Italian Michele Tavernaro won the race after Jebb, who eventually finished third, had led the way to the summit of the (3,152m) Piz Bo mountain. The Italian used his local knowledge to overtake Jebb on the most technical downhill section of the course, reaching the finish line in 2h08'30", breaking the previous record.

Fellow Briton Simon Booth also overtook Jebb who finished third in 2:10:20.

In July the athletes headed for the French ski resort of La Plagne with 700 runners taking part in the 55k event, at 40-miles the longest in the series.

A runner from the Ukraine led in the opening stages but Jebb wasted no time in catching him and held the lead to the finish and completed the event in 4 hours, 9 minutes and 44 seconds, smashing the six-year-old record by almost eight minutes.

The winner of the final event in Borneo last weekend would get double points setting up a thrilling finish to the contest.

A Mexican, Italians and a Venezuelan, made the early pace followed by Jebb who started to loose ground risking his almost certain title if Italian Fulvio Dapit had won the race.

Victory went to Mexican Ricardo Majia meaning Jebb held on to the overall title with a total of 366 points from his two wins, a second and a third place.

Jebb was also a member of the British Saab-Salomon team that took third place in the team competition behind Catalonia and Italy.

n Jebb's victory comes on top of his Three Peaks double which saw him win both the fell and cyclo-cross races.