Michael Gregory and Olesia Winder won the senior men's and women's races, respectively, at the Hoad Hill Harriers' annual fell race, which was held on July 4.

The races began at the base of the Hoad by Ford Park where the runners were invited to fight for places on the tough course, which extended as far as Newland.

The fell was good underfoot on the day with dry slippy sections, gravel paths, rocky outcrops and a newly-added undulating fell on the eastern Newland Side, making the senior course a new challenge for local fell runners.

A record number or participants entered the race seeing 47 runners disappearing over the monument as they embarked on the 4.4km race, which had a climb of 198m.

A small group of three from Ambleside AC, Ulverston Tri Club & Leven Valley broke away from the field of 27 in the men's race and looked to gain a slight advantage as they descended down toward Newland Back and that didn’t change until they hit fast level section returning up to the monument.

Gregory (Ulverston Tri Club) took the opportunity at this point with a quick finish down toward the finish and just missed out on the 20-minute mark in crossing the line first in 20 minutes, 32 seconds.

There were only ten seconds splitting him from runner-up Luke Bowen of Ambleside AC in 20:42, while Leven Valley's Noah Kidd was the first junior runner to finish, as he came third in 20.49.

Fourth-placed James Bowen, was the second junior runner and the second from Ambleside to finish, clocking 21:20 and Matthew Rooke from the Black Combe Runners was fifth in 21:57.

Ten runners participated in the women's race and it was the youngest in the field who took victory, as Leven Valley's Winder, an under-16 runner, crossed in a superb time of 25:01.

She finished over a minute and a half ahead of runner-up Rebecca Brooke (Black Combe Runners), who clocked 26:36, a comfortable finish ahead of third-placed Kathleen Aubbey (Helm Hill Harriers) who finished in 27:22.

The top five was made up by Winder's clubmate at Leven, Liz McNally, fourth with 29:21, with Lauren Booth the best finisher from home club Hoad Hill Harriers, as she came home fifth with a time of 30:39.