Over 250 runners took part in a district event hosted by Airienteers in the woods and on moorland at Danefield near Otley.

It was a colour-coded competition, with courses of different length and complexity, and the size of the area allowed for a seldom-run black track of 9.5km with nearly 400 metres of climb.

This was won by Andrew Thorpe of the East Pennine club in an excellent time of 67min 42sec, with local runner Steve Watkins taking third place in 71.49.

Perhaps the run of the day was by David Roome (South Ribblesdale), who scorched round the 8.4km brown course in 50.40. First local runner home was Peter Jones in fifth place.

Airienteers had two winners in the senior races, with Tony Thornley taking the 6km blue course just ahead of clubmate and fellow veteran international Ruth Ker.

The other local winner was George Stevens, who beat 61 rivals to win the 4.7km green course.

At junior level there were wins for Airienteers duo Stanley Conway (1.9km white course) and Jonathan Snowden (2.8km yellow course).

The event also incorporated the first round of the Yvette Baker Trophy for juniors, with Airienteers beating York-based Eborienteers by the narrow margin of 895 to 891 points.

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