A SECOND successive Scottish Senior Hill Running Championships crown was claimed by a member of PH Racing Club.

Andrew Wright took part in the event, hosted by Highland Hill Runners as part of their Alex Brett Cioch Mhor Hill Race near Dingwall, and retained the national V40 title he collected last year.

He completed the 13 kilometre course, complete with 690m of climbing, in one hour 10 minutes and seven seconds, which placed him fifth overall.

In her debut at this distance, Louise Lessels took the prize for third female at the Neil McCover Memorial Half Marathon, held in Kirkintilloch, with a time of 1:38.35, whilst Gordon Coull ran a personal best of 1:35.58.

Craig Paterson and Mark McLean ran in the recent Manchester Marathon, where Paterson clocked 2:59.18 after just three weeks' training, while McLean's time of 3:08.56 was a new best.

There was a welcome return to cross-country competition for six PH runners at the East District Cross-Country Championships, held at Gala Academy.

Aaron Bennet, Darren Jubb, Paul Kieran and Mark Webster brought the club's 'A' team home in 18th position from 40 teams.

The Giffordtown 5K event saw 13 PH vests on show, the fastest was Jamie Lessels who finished 10th in 16.50.

Mark Ryan continued his good form, following a fourth place at the Dalgety Bay 10K, with 13th place in 17.18; Aaron Bennet clocked 17.26 and Stuart Meiklejohn, in his first main PH race, timed at 17.56.

Kristin Lownie was the quickest PH female at 18.35, followed by Julie Menzies (19.12), Louise Lessels (20.57) and Susan Allan (23.42, PB).

John Crookston, in 18.57, placed as the second V60 runner, just behind Commonwealth Games veteran, Paul Forbes; M40 runner Mark Webster finished in 18.54; Ed Norton finished first in the V70 category, equalling the course record of 20.46; and Wullie Haldane timed at 20.28.

Gary Pirie finished second, then first, in the Blast race series in Edinburgh, clocking 18.20 and 18.09 respectively in the Meadows; Paul Hammond finished ninth in the Moray Way 100 mile race in 22:13.42; and Ed Norton was the first V70 runner at the Lochore 10K (44.46), in which Darran Neilson and Clare Graham posted times of 42.05 and 51.43 respectively.