Otley Athletic Club's Caroline Marler shows off the three gold medals she won in the World Masters Indoor Championship for women aged 55 and over in Linz, Austria.

Her major achievement was winning the pentahlon for women aged 55 and over. She won easily, by about 350 points from the second placed athlete.

Her points total was 4350. She also won gold in the 400 metres and the relay.

Caroline set a world age record (for 55 year-old women) in the 400 metres where she ran 66.8 seconds, 0.1 inside the previous world record. Over 3000 athletes from more than 60 countries took part in the championships.

Caroline won the pentathlon (60m hurdles, shot, high jump, long jump and 800m) by a huge margin, nearly 500 more than the second-placed athlete.

Caroline also continues to hold the world record for 800m (women 45) that she set some years ago.

Otley AC

Last Saturday was the 12 Stage Road Relays in Manchester's Heaton Park. This was the second year in succession they had staged it only this time the course was altered and lengthened to avoid overcrowding.

As usual it can be quite hard to get 12 runners to compete for this event. In the end Otley AC managed to get probably their strongest team so far. Legs one, four, seven and ten are long 9km. The rest are the shorter 5km.

Andrew Robertshaw ran the first long leg (9km) in 32.40 (39th place). On leg two, Julian Mawson ran 17.55 and gained four places. On leg three, Chris Carver fresh from a recent ultra-distance race around an athletics track, finished in 19.34.

On leg four, Ian Fisher ran strongly and gained them back 18 places with the ninth fastest time of the day in 29.15. The fastest by Jason Ward of Altrincham was 50 seconds faster.

John Armitstead ran leg five in 20.38, and then passed over to Mick Jeffrey who did 21.36. Jamie Noon finished his leg seven in a quick 31.29. Neil Cayton ran his one lap on leg eight in 17.11.

A week after having a great result at the East Hull 20 miler. Tom Hannah completed his leg in 21.36.

Improving Jamil Parapia ran an almost solo race with no one to run with finished in 31.39. On leg 11 Edward Davies, who is new to relays, ran a great race with his time of 18.23. Malcolm Court ran the final 12th stage in 19.39.

In the end, Otley finished 27th out of 48 completed teams. They were later to find out, that they were eligible to run the National 12 stage in Birmingham on April 8. Leeds City and Sale Harriers had their B teams in front. Only the A teams go, so this gave Otley 25th place. The first 25 go through. As Otley did not expect to finish in the top 25 the team had left before the final results.

After the Ackworth Half Marathon, a championship race, Neil Cayton and Julian Mawson were selected to run for Yorkshire.

Otley AC training is at Otley RUFC, Cross Green, on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7.15pm

Skyrac AC

One of the issues that fell race organisers have to address is keeping land owners happy; no access, no fell race.

A few years ago the National Trust erected a temporary stile for the Three Peaks Race in the wrong field which meant that on race day the field contained sheep. This infuriated the son of the farm owner. A couple of years later the farm owner died and the son inherited the farm. He refused to let the race follow its traditional route and the race now has to finish with a half mile run in along a road.

Last year the owners of the land over which the Fiendsdale race crosses accused runners of damaging the ground. Although this was disputed by the organisers this year the race was re-routed and shortened to avoid the contentious section.

However, at least it was run and the winner last Saturday was Sean Bolland (Bowland) in 69.22. For Skyrac Robert Pritchard was 46th in 91.46 and Malcolm Coles was 80th in 103.09.

The Midgley Moor race presents a route choice between leaping over moorland heather in a direct line or taking the more circuitous sheep trod path. The better choice varies from year to year.

When the heather has been burnt off the direct route is the faster but on Saturday the high heather meant most runners went the long way round.

Race winner in 39.05 from around 80 runners was Karl Gray (Calder Valley) who currently seems to win a race a week and for Skyrac Graham Breeze was 41st and First V60 in 53.08.

Last man home was Bill Smith, author of the classic 'Stud Marks on the Summits', but since Bill is now nearly 70 and the race was his first for three years he did not seem to be too unhappy with his day out on the fells.

Skyrac AC is based at Nunroyd Park on the Guiseley/Yeadon boundary and enjoys the facilities of the magnificent ANSA clubhouse. Skyrac can be contacted via www.skyrac.org.uk or 01943 874046.

Ilkley Harriers

Ilkley Harriers ladies were enjoying some considerable success in road racing over the weekend. Sally Malir was ninth lady, and third lady vet, in the Barcelona Marathon on Sunday. With temperatures of 19 in the shade Sally ran 3h11.

On Saturday a team of ladies from Ilkley Harriers was 18th in the Northern Six Stage Road Relays. The strength of the competition was great, with Ilkley lining up against the best from Chester-le-Street, Sale, Salford, Bingley, Leeds City, Morpeth et al.

The women's race comprised six legs, each athlete running the same 5K leg. Alison Bennett was in with the stampede that begins with leg one, and ran a strong leg to hand over in 21:01 and 31st position. A fantastic run then followed by Helena Deeney in 23:51, only dropping one position.

Amanda Oddie, running from strength to strength these days, ran a tremendous leg three in 19:44 (9th fastest) pulling in six places in the process. Adele Mitchell took over on leg four, somewhat apprehensive because a 5K blast on the road is rather different from her usual triathlon events; she need not have worried though as she ran well, her 25:42 putting the team in a strong position for leg five.

Sarah Jarvis, still nursing an injured calf stuck solidly to the task in hand running a fast time of 20:28 to pull back back two places for the hand over. Helen Sedgwick ran a brilliant leg six in 20:26, pulling back another five places from athletes who were 60 seconds plus ahead of her at the hand over. The final result was a fantastic result for the club, 18th position out of 35 complete teams.

Up on the fells, the postponed Fiendsdale race took place on Saturday. A shortened course with at least as much ascent as the previous route made for quite a tough race. It was wet and muddy underfoot but with good visiblity.

Stefan Macina was 9th in 1:13, Steve Turland 24th 1:21:44; Dave Wilby 26th in 1:22:26; Heather Dawe 55th and 3rd lady in 1:33:50; Kelly Harrison 65th and 7th lady in 1:36:27.

At the presentations for the Sport Direct Cross-Country League on Friday night, Ilkley ladies' team were presented with the trophy for winning the Premier Division - the Veteran ladies team missed out on winning by just a few points, as did Ilkley's men's team.

Bernie Gibbons got individual honours as 1st V50; Ann Stead was 23rd V50; and Alison Bennett was 2nd V40.

Ilkley Harriers is a friendly club, running from Ilkley Lawn Tennis and Squash Club every Tuesday at 7pm - see the web site www.ilkleyharriers.org.uk for more info.