STAVELEY'S Rob Jebb romped to a second victory in the Ben Nevis Fell Race on Saturday - and confirmed that the event is his favourite, writes Mike Addison.

"It's definitely the race to win," said the 30-year-old Bingley athlete. "It's the best fell race in the country with it being the highest mountain and having such character."

Jebb took it on early on the road before the race takes to the fell after his team mate Ian Holmes and Lochaber's David Rodgers pushed the early pace.

"I went with them and felt quite good so I really made an effort," said Jebb. "I knew that I needed a good lead at the top because they are really good descenders. As it was I had a good descent myself, only Simon Booth ran faster coming down, I think."

Jebb clocked 1-29-22 beating Borrowdale's Simon Booth by over two-and-a-half minutes with Holmes coming home third.

His partner Sharon Taylor also turned in an excellent performance to win the ladies' race for the second year running finishing 68th in 1-58-15. Her nearest challenger was Dark Peak's Karen Davison who was 79th.

RESULTS: 1 R Jebb, Bingley, 1-29-22; 2 S Booth, Borrowdale, 1-31-59; 3 I Holmes, Bingley, 1-34-22; 15 J Deegan, Ambleside, 1-42-56; 20 Peter Brittleton, Helm Hill, 1-44-42; 68 S Taylor, Bingley, 1-58-15; 75 C Speight, Ambleside, 1-59-48; 81 S Hicks, Borrowdale, 2-01-03; 106 C Tweedie, Ambleside, 2-06-41; 150 R Cannon, Helm Hill, 2-14-58; 186 R Gillespie, Eden, 2-21-48; 230 S moor, Settle, 2-31-44; 249 J McKenzie, Helm Hill, 2-34-55; 308 N Walmsley, Ambleside, 2-45-57; 329 D Tomlinson, Howgill, 2-52-52; 343 K Heywood, Kendal, 3-00-21. There were 362 finishers.

THE 53rd Lake District Mountain Trial was based at Tilberthwaite Farm, Coniston, and was won by Ifor Powell of Westbury Harriers.

Held annually at different Lake District venues, the mountain trial is one of the major events in the fell running calendar and is a severe test of route choice, navigation skills and stamina in difficult mountain terrain.

Runners collect their maps with pre-marked routes after their start that show between 6-8 controls to visit in order. Starts are at one-minute intervals, so there is little chance of following anyone.

This year the men's course visited checkpoints south of Tilberthwaite Ghyll, Black Sails, the quarry south of the Old Man of Coniston, crossing the Duddon Valley to the north west of Harter Fell, to a control on Hardknott above Lincove Bridge. Their return route crossed the Wrynose Pass road and took them to a gully south-east of Wetherlam and finished on Blake Rigg and the bottom of Tilberthwaite Ghyll.

The technical nature of the navigation and extremely hot weather meant that the course of about 20 miles provided a tough challenge.

Powell covered the 25.6 kilometre course in 4hrs 51minutes ahead of Borrowdale Andrew Davies - first V40 - and Lothian's Andy Kitchen.

Borrowdale's Gavin Bland was fifth while Kendal's Phil Clarke - a past winner of the event - won the V50 category by finishing 13th in 5-52-16.

The women's race was won by Pippa Whitehouse of Dorking and Mole Valley in 4 hours 20mins. Rebecca Cash, of Borrowdale, finished second while Milnthorpe's Wendy Dodds was an excellent third. Jayne Rigby, of Helm Hill, was fourth in her first ever mountain trial.

The short course of approximately 10 miles for novices and older runners was won in 4hrs 3 mins by Hector Haines of Airienteers.

RESULTS: Men: 1 I Powell, Westbury, 4-51-47; 2 A Davies, Borrowdale, 4-53-57; 3 A Kitchen, Lothian, 5-02-41; 5 G Bland, Borrowdale, 5-11-35; 11 Q Harding, Bowland, 5-39-55; 13 P Clarke, Kendal, 5-52-16; 21 M Beresford, Kendal, 6-22-07; 23 R Blyth, Helm Hill, 6-31-43; 26 A Miller, Kendal, 6-35-44; 33 J Faulkner, Eden, 6-50-16; 35 N Wharton, Kendal, 6-55-21; 41 M Knowles, Black Combe, 7-11-25; 42 J Broxap, Kendal, 7-12-38; 47 S Milligan, Helm Hill, 7-17-10; 52 M Walford, Kendal, 7-23-28; 55 F Livesey, Howgill, 7-29-48; 62 D Aspden, Dallam, 7-51-16; 66 N Hambrey, Kendal, 7-54-0; 72 R Smithurst, Black Combe, 8-41-30. Women: 1 P Whitehouse, Dorking, 4-19-59; 2 R Cash, Borrowdale, 4-50-27; 3 W Dodds, Clayton, 4-53-46; 4 J Rigby, Helm Hill, 5-01-06; 7 S Clough, Ambleside, 5-02-39; 14 A Bramall, Ambleside, 5-41-51; 24 C McNeill, Ambleside, 6-24-32.

THE FIFTH Masters World Mountain Running Championships take place at Keswick this weekend with a record entry already secured.

Over 1,100 veteran mountain runners from all over the world will compete in various age groups tomorrow (September 10), eclipsing the previous best entry for the event, which was 741 in Austria in 2003.

Entries have been received from 26 countries including the USA, Australia, Russia, Italy, Ireland, Gibraltar, Holland, Germany, Ukraine, Japan, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, France and New Zealand.

The courses run from Fitz Park out along the lower flanks of Latrigg and Skiddaw before looping onto Lonscale Fell and returning to Fitz Park (first race starts 11am, final race starts at 3.30pm).

There will be an open race on Sunday starting at noon.