ILKLEY Harriers' male and female contingent joined forces to finish in an impressive 15th place at the lengthy Leeds Country Way relay.

The race starts and finishes in Garforth, circumnavigating Leeds in six 10-12 mile legs via Wakefield, Morley, Thornbury, Golden Acre Park and Thorner.

Jonathan Turner and Steve Murray got the team off to a solid start, finishing the first 11.75 miles in one hour and 26 minutes in 19th position.

The 11-mile second leg from Stanley to Morley was run by Mike Abrams Cohen and Will Buckton. Their time of 1:32 helped to propel the team up to 17th.

A superb performance on a hilly third leg by Michael Lomas and Andrew Overend saw them post a time of 1:13. That allowed them to hand the baton over to Jack Wood and Istvan Jacso at Thornbury in 13th position.

Their route was considered by many as the toughest leg, but the pair produced a storming performance of 1:20, which was the second fastest time, and saw them up to eighth place overall.

Jean Sullivan and Caroline Howe found the intense afternoon heat difficult to handle. The team dropped to 14th as a result, but they were the sixth fastest ladies pair out of 24.

Malcolm Pickering and David Howe managed a solid final leg of 1:24 to carry Harriers over the line in 15th out of 58 teams, in a total time of 8 hours and 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, Paul Carman completed another ultra event, the 45.9-mile Grand Tour of Skiddaw in the Lake District. He came 11th in 8 hours and 40 minutes, a gutsy effort in a race which features 7,000ft of ascent.

Helen Waddington was further afield competing in the Orsières-Champex-Chamonix UTMB race. With 11,500ft of ascent, it is a challenging event but thanks to some incredible French support, she finished after 11 hours and secured herself 18th V50.

The Ben Nevis Race is a mountain race that takes place annually, from the foot of the UK's highest peak to the top, then back again.

This year it was the final race in the British Championships and Steven Turland (2:04:52) and Alison Weston (2:30:03) both achieved great results, coming 165th and 349th respectively.

Elsewhere, Sally Armitage shone at the Wetherby 10k, finishing in 47 minutes and eight seconds, coming fourth in the F40 category. Sheena Pickersgill (58:22) finished 11th F55, while Dawn Turner (58:42) was 13th F50.

In this week's fell races, Jack Wood (11:25) won at Ennerdale, while he came a narrow second at Reeth Show in 15:15. Iain Gibbons (18:30) finished 12th at the latter event, and was 10th at Burnsall in 16:40.

Steven Gott was just behind Gibbons at Burnsall, finishing 13th in 16:49 and was also 16th at the Kilnsey Show with a time of 10:13.

Finally, at the Podium 5K in Barrowford, Euan Brennan sharpened up for his forthcoming British race in Andorra, coming sixth in the 'A' race in 15:16.