Young Jenny is the county U-16 fell race champion

Top junior fell runners competed for points in their respective age categories in the first race in the series of the junior English Fell Championships. In addition it was also given the status of Yorkshire Junior Fell Championships.

Ilkley Harriers had 40 juniors competing, many for the first time in a Championship race. There were six medallists in the Yorkshire Championships with pride of place going to Jenny Dybeck who by coming first in the Under-16 girls' race was crowned Yorkshire champion and gained maximum points in the English Championship - a brilliant start to the series.

The highest placed junior Harrier in each of the age categories was:

U-8 boys Ben Cheetham 3rd; U-8 girls - Laura Chapman 2nd; U-10 boys - Alex Foster 6th; U-10 girls - Anna Tench 3rd; U-12 boys - Josh Crane 12th; U-12 girls - Ellie Taylor 4th overall and silver medallist in the Yorkshire Championships; U-14 boys - Michael Hinchcliffe 15th; U-14 girls - Fiona Jordan 6th overall and silver medallist in the Yorkshire Championships; U-16 girls - Jenny Dybeck 1st and gold medallist in the Yorkshire Championships; U-16 boys - Elliot Dawson 16th; U-18 boys - Hector Haines 7th and bronze medallist in the Yorkshire Championships; U-18 girls - Victoria Stevens 6th and silver medallist in the Yorkshire Championships; U-20 boys - Ben Stevens 13th and bronze medallist in the Yorkshire Championships.

In the senior race Jamie Hutchinson was 20th (16 of the 19 ahead of him were U-18 or U-20) in 32:51 and Bob Hamilton was 22nd in 33:12.

In the South Leeds Stadium Five, Amanda Oddie was a comfortable ladies winner in 32:02. She was content to run alongside the more experienced local roadrunner Karen Ball (Ackworth Roadrunners) as the field tackled the long hill through traffic free Middleton Park for the first time.

On the descent, around two and a half miles, Amanda showed her superior speed, pulled away and, without faltering on the long hill for the second time, ran out an easy winner. The victory reflects her consistent efforts over the winter months and augurs well for the warmer months to come.

Terry Lonergan ran 33.12, and Pat Lonergan 44.18. Suzanne Akeroyd ran 2h30:29 in the Spen 20.

Otley Athletic Club

Otley AC was represented by Don Buffham and David Fox in the tough 14.5 mile Dentdale run last weekend. In a strong field of 350 Dave gave a very creditable performance to come in 127th with a time of 1.52.10 followed by Don 284th (2.14.53). The winner was Nick Leigh of Altrincham (1.18.19).

This weekend saw Tom Hannah (well on course for London) competing in the East Hull 20, unusually, for this part of the world, it was a fairly still day which may have helped Tom to post an impressive time of 2.29.53.

Closer to home three members of Otley AC took part in the Barnardo's South Leeds Stadium Five Mile Road Race. A last minute change to the start line meant a short off road section at the beginning, while the long climb at the beginning and middle of the two lap race meant PBs and quick times were unlikely.

Otley results were: Dan Lambert (34.07), Helen Walsh (38.09) and Hannah Peacock (time unavailable).

Skyrac AC

Many running clubs have their own Championships and some of these are handicapped but the Skyrac AC Fell Championship, known as the Derek Emsley Memorial Trophy, may be unique in that its handicap system is revised after every race in the ten event season.

So a good performance in one race means a runner has to do even better in the next race to score the same number of points.

This approach is because the trophy was set up to encourage improved performance and not to reward the fastest runner in the club, who would presumably win the trophy year after year.

So after 17 years the Trophy Shield now includes 11 different names, including, of course, that of Derek Emsley who won the Trophy within the last year of his life. Ironically one name missing from the trophy is that of Duncan Asquith, who has been one of if not the fastest runner at Skyrac for some years but because of the rigorous handicapping system has never come higher than third place.

Six runners have their names on the trophy twice or more and only three runners have won the trophy in consecutive years. Pleasingly two of these, Graham Breeze and Martin Farrar, are still racing competitively and aspire to win again before younger club members like Rob Weston have their years of glory.

The third race in the trophy is next month's Anniversary Waltz in Cumbria's Newlands Valley. Ten Skyrac runners have competed in the opening two trophy races and currently the leading runners are Graham Breeze, Robert Pritchard - also a past winner - and Skyrac Chairman, Stephen Batley, who was runner-up in 2004.

Two of Skyrac's London Marathon entries limbered up at the East Hull 20 last weekend. Alan Bye, who has done more London Marathons than he can count, finished 81st in 2.27.50 and Max Wood finished in 118th in 2.28.44.

Max works in London and commutes home to glorious Yorkshire each weekend but clearly cannot get enough of London's streets.

Alex shines

ILKLEY'S Alex Sinclair, who goes to Ermysteds School, is a keen cross-country runner both for his school and for Skipton Running Club.

On Saturday he crossed the finishing line first from a field of 70 runners in the U-13 age group in the Northern Schools Cross-Country Championship at Salford.

The Ermysteds team, managed by Mr Speake, were also the winning team taking first, second, sixth and tenth places resulting in a total of 19 points - a huge margin over the second team from West Hill who achieved 44 points.

The points are calculated by adding up the places of the first four runners for each school with the lowest total winning.

This win follows the team's success earlier in the year in the English National Schools Cross-Country Championships held at Leeds Grammar School where Ermysteds U-13s came second in the country by just one point.

Title for Holly

Ilkley girl Holly Medley became Bradford Schools U-11s girls' cross-country champion this week when she won the annual event at Northcliffe, Shipley.

Holly, who attends Bradford Grammar School, ran a perfect race to finish 100m ahead of her nearest rival in comfortable style. She trains with Skyrac AC running and also with former British Olympic team coach Wilf Paish at Carnegie College.

Holly's training programme will continue now with track work where she intends to race this season in the 800m event.

Wilf Paish said: "Holly has great natural talent and I anticipate great things from her over this season on the track."

Her club coach Gordon Agar now has both a Leeds and Bradford Schools cross- country U-11 girls champion in the club.

He said: "We now have a great depth of talent here at Skyrac."

Title for Holly

THE increasingly popular Ilkley Triathlon, hosted by the Leeds and Bradford Triathlon Club in association with Bradford Council, will be staged on Sunday, September 24 and will again be based around Ilkley Swimming pool.

The 14th annual event will be bigger than ever before as it will incorporate for the first time a small number of corporate relay teams.

If you have always fancied being part of the event find a couple of work colleagues or friends to make up a team and start training now for the event.

Entry forms for individual and corporate challenges will be available on the club website www.lbt.org.uk from the end of April. Membership details can also be found on the same website.