OTLEY AC's Caroline Marler has returned from Izmir in Turkey with four gold medals after taking part in the European Vets Championships.

She recorded her fastest time for two years in winning the 400m women's 60-65 age group race in a time of 70.23 seconds and took the 800m in 2:48.05, her best time in that distance since winning the World Championships in Brazil last year.

She was also part of the 4x100m and 4x400m relay squads which won gold medals.

Caroline said: "These championships were held in very hot conditions but the timetable was split into two sessions to avoid the midday sun, and I ran my individual events, the 400m and 800m, before it got too hot.

"I was pleased to win both comfortably, retaining the 400m title I won two years ago in Zittau, Germany."

In the Northern Athletics Road Relay Championships, Otley fielded two teams. A total of 140 sides took part in the event held over a course of just over three miles in Warrington, with the fastest time of the day (18:07) going to Mark Buckingham (Holmfirth).

The Otley A team saw Scott Harrington record 20:35, Liam Dunne 21:10, Ian Fisher 19:54, Thomas Midgley 21:26, Matthew John 19:54 and Frank Beresford 20:05.

Due to illness only five runners took part in the B team of Julian Mawson 21:58, Graham Lake 23:00, Rogan Ashton 23:20, Andrew Robertshaw 22:04 and Robin Outtersides 21:37.

Team captain Liam Dunne said: "It's not always easy to work up the enthusiasm to travel long distances for a 6km run in the afternoon and compete against the creme de la creme of northern athletics.

"In the past we have struggled to get all our best runners available to compete in these types of event but this year we probably had the best 12, although unfortunately one member went down with illness on the day.

"This didn't deter the rest of the team turning up and they all ran really brilliantly, and were in 66th place at the end of leg five.

"Team-A all ran out of their skins to finish in 23rd position overall, just 21 seconds off a top 20 finish, which is a fantastic result given the standard of the competition and the size of the club – probably our best ever result at this level."

The day after the relays, Frank Beresford clocked up another win, the Kirkstall Abbey 7, taking the top spot in 37:35,with Tom Potter 22nd in 43:36, Howard Jeffrey 46th (47:42), Colin Best 158th (56:37) and Sara Richard 179th (59:10).