OTLEY AC had a busy weekend with lots of athletes out racing in different events and 40 members attending the annual training weekend in the Lake District.

Howard Jeffery was back out in an Otley vest on Saturday. Jeffery has been keeping a light race schedule recently to train for the European long and standard distance duathlons in April.

He travelled to Clumber Park for the British Sprint Duathlon Championships with hope to qualify, for his age group, at the 2016 European champs.

Howard finished 170th out of 450 starters and 2nd in his v60 category and qualified for the 2016 ETU sprint.

Jamil Parapia took to the start line for Sunday's Wilmslow Half Marathon, this was Jamil's first half marathon in over eight years.

The race winner was Ugandan Ben Siwa from Kenyan based Team Run Fast in 64.57. The female winner was Kenyan Perendis Lekapana also of Team Run Fast in a course record 71.24. Parapia finished in 17th place in a time of 70:26 and in doing managed to knock 29 secs of my personal best.

Ian Broadbent took part in the Trimpell 20 mile race. The race is 99per cent traffic-free route which winds around Lancaster then up the old railway track to Caton. Broadbent finished in 3hrs 5mins.

The East Hull 20 mile race saw Tom Midgley, Richard Smith and Liam Dunne tackle the flat course as part of their marathon training. The winner was Aaron Scott from Notts AC in 01:45:13 and the first lady was Helen Livingstone in 2:12:31.

The Otley trio had great performances with Midgley finishing sixth with a time of 2:00:45 (Pb by 3 mins), Dunne was tenth in 2:04:24 and Smith finishing 40th in 2.13.00 (Pb by 4 mins). This impressive performance earned Otley AC first men's team prize.

The Thirsk 10 was also on Sunday and Otley had good representation. The winner was Jonathan Taylor from Morpeth Harriers in 48:45 and the first lady was Justina Heslop from Elswick Harriers in 58:15.

First home for Otley was Scott Harrington in third place in a time of 53:31. Also for Otley were Robin Outtersides in 59:26, Julian Mawson 1:05:59, Mark Berry 1:13:06, Eriks Zvaigne in 1:17:23, Nicola Lee 1:17:44, Christopher Tomlinson 1:19:24, Charlotte Tomlinson 1:26:01, Gemma Harrington 1:29:04 and Nicky Gifford in 1:30:20.

Shane Ewen was the only Otley member taking part in the Heptonstall fell race, a 15 mile route around Calder Valley, taking in Hardcastle Crags, Wadsworth Moor and Midgeholes. This was Shane’s first race since sustaining a hamstring strain at the Rombalds Stride. Ewen was 43rd in 2:20:00. The winner was Ben Mounsey from Calder Valley Fell Runners in 1:47:15 and the first lady was Sally Fawcett from Dark Peak Fell Runners in 2:19:06.