HISTORY makers from Ambleside Ladies Athletic Club are celebrating after a clean sweep in what has been a highly successful season for the Lake District team.

Led by team captain Astrid Gibbs, the team of Michelle Foxwell, Hazel Robinson, Jane Reedy, Annie Conway, Lou Roberts, Steph Jones and Rebecca Sheffield scooped in total four major victories this year.

Wins in both the women's open team competition in the British and English Fell Running Championships were followed by equally stunning achievements in first the Ian Hodgson Mountain Relay before the cherry on the icing on the cake came at the British Athletics Fell and Hill Relay Championships near Barbon last month.

The quadruple has only ever been done once before by Pudsey and Bramley in 1995.

"Whilst we are a competitive and determined bunch of ladies and work hard for individual placings we all take great pleasure in being part of a team," said Gibbs. "I think I speak for the team when I say a team win is the best. It is great to support each other in sometimes difficult circumstances to get a great result and the recent relay was testament to that. We tried our best, pulled together, supported each other and encouraged each other with a great end result. The sense of camaraderie is amazing."

The club's veteran team also won the British Championships and were runners-up in the English.

"This year in particular we saw more team members take part in the vets category in both the British and English championships," continued Gibbs. "This has been great to see and inspiring for both the team and individual members. It's given such members a chance to shine and several of them this year have been counters in the races and will be going to the forthcoming FRA awards dinner to pick up their medal, something several of them never thought they would achieve."

In total the Ambleside team won five out of the six English counting races and two out of four of the British counting races. The team had three runners in the top 10 in the English Championships as Gibbs came in eighth with Robinson and Sheffield following suit.

In the British Championships Gibbs finished ninth and Robinson, who also won a third placed medal in the British veteran category, finished seventh.

It wasn't all plain sailing, however. One of the opening races was the first round of the British championships held in the Mourne mountains in Northern Island.

"What should have been a straight forward short race and suited to several in the team being rocky, rough and off tracks turned into a bit of a nightmare as most of the team went off the best line in heavy mist," said Gibbs.

"As a result, we finished seventh which left us with an awful lot of work to do. We also had injuries and ill health of some team members to deal with which at the time made putting out a strong team difficult.

"It is testament to the depth of the team and the dedication of the ladies that we managed to pull back places and take the win in both the English and the British Championships."