HELM Hill runners dominated at an English Championship counter race with a superb victory in the women's and U23 race at Blackfell.

The race, which also hosted the Yorkshire Fell Senior and U23 championships consisted of a fast and gruelling 8.7mile run with a climb of more than 2,000ft.

It was also a day of extremely high standards as records tumbled.

With nearly 300 competitors taking part, victory for the women's race went to Helm Hill's Kelli Roberts (01-27-15), who came 51st overall and smashed the women's record by 17 minutes.

Fellow team mate Sharon Taylor (01-29-00) came in third place and just 15 seconds behind Ribble Valley's Nichola Jackson (01-28-46).

Hannah Russell (01-33-14), also of Helm Hill, was crowned the U23 Yorkshire Champion after her impressive run, coming in 7th in the women's category and 93rd overall.

The race was won overall by Tom Adams (01-14-28), of Ilkley Harriers, who had a commanding lead by the first checkpoint and it looked like he was never going to be caught. He broke the men's record by four minutes and 25 seconds with Jack Wood (01-17-50), also of Ilkley in second and Ambleside's Matt Elkington (01-18-13) in third.

Staveley's Rob Jebb (01-20-39) was the fourth MV40 to cross the line and Helm Hill's Bianca Dyer (01-39-45) was the third FV45.

In other sporting events, Kendal AC's Sarah Tunstall, brought GB home at the European Mountain Running Championships.

The Kirkby Stephen runner competed in the Gornergrat Zermatt Marathon in Switzerland on Sunday.

The fascinating, yet extremely demanding course, took the athletes along a 10.1km route from Zermatt with more than 3,000ft of climbing and ending at Riffelberg on the Gornergrat mountain.

Tunstall finished the race in an impressive time of one hour 3 minutes and 33 seconds and came fourth.

Ambleside's Sarah McCormack also competed and finished 16th overall in a time of one hour six minutes and 57 seconds.

l Sedbergh runner, Ali Bramall has taken on the role of race director for the world's highest and toughest mountain, as listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

She is the new director of the Original Everest Marathon and will be joined by team leader Wendy Dodds, of Milnthorpe.