Dean leads Hallamshire home as Leeds men dominate

Again, in the men's race, no-one could touch the Leeds squad. They were led by Alan Buckley who had a fine run in seventh place with veteran Darran Bilton (14th) and Martin Hilton (17th) both excelling in the 600-strong field.

Adam Osborne (26th) and Mike Burrett (29th) were close behind and the counting six was completed by Chris Birchall in 34th place.

They had 102 points to spare over runners-up Salford and that was despite Simon Deakin dropping out. They also had three other runners in the top 53 places to underline their complete dominance over the best opposition the North of England could produce.

Steve Vernon (Stockport) had an easy individual win over Andi Jones (Salford).

Hatti Dean, a former winner and last year's runner-up, moved easily through the heavy mud to open up a 26-second winning margin over Bingley's Victoria Wilkinson with Leeds City's Susan Partridge, despite losing a shoe, making it a clean sweep of individual medals for Yorkshire athletes.

It followed Dean's win in last week's McCain Cross Challenge and shows that the Hallamshire international is coming into top form at the right time. Just as pleasing was her team's success. Julia Russell (7th) and Lizzie Adams (11th) followed Dean home much as they did in last year's race and the counters were completed by Rachael Elder who stuck to her task well to finish 55th, giving Hallamshire a comfortable 32-point margin over Sale with Leeds City close behind in third place.

Leeds City's Under-20 team had an easy win and provided the individual champion. It was no surprise that James Wilkinson won the title after his third place in the European junior championship and he got well clear of Hallamshire's Andy Heyes.

Leeds had Carl Smith 4th, Mike Williams, 9th, and Dale Worton 12th to crush the opposition.

There were wins for Natalie Grant (Rotherham) in the Under-20 women's race, Katy Wood (City of York) at Under-15 level and Ben Spencer (Middlesborough) in the Under-13 boys.

An outstanding run by Holmfirth Harrier Matthew Pierson saw him retain his title in the Brass Monkey Half Marathon at York yesterday in a new course record of 65:35. Pierson, 24, has been training at altitude in Kenya, only arriving back Friday.

The first woman was Becky Penty (York Acorn) who finished 41st overall in 78:33. This was well inside Penty's previous best for the distance.