ILKLEY Harriers' athletes were at least able to compete in several races at the weekend, before an extended break due to the coronavirus pandemic came into force.

The Harriers have also cancelled all club training runs and sessions until at least the end of April, in accordance with current England Athletics guidelines.

On Saturday, ultra runner Ben Sheppard made the top 10 in the Haworth Hobble.

The event covered a testing 32 miles and featured 5,350 feet of climbing, but Sheppard came seventh in four hours and 48 minutes, just half an hour behind winner Kevin Hoult, of Calder Valley Fell Runners.

Fellow Harrier Mark Judkowski sneaked inside the top 100 with his time of 6:23.

On the Saturday evening, five Harriers made the trip over for the Podium 5k in Barrowford.

This race consists of nearly five laps of a totally flat cycle track and, well known for being a 'PB' (personal best) course, it tends to attract the fastest runners.

Ilkley's Jemima Elgood improved her own all-time club record for the distance by eight seconds in the 'A' race with a time of 16 minutes and 46 seconds.

In the 'B' race there were some notable times, including Dave Foyston with 17:50 and Sally Armitage, who was the first lady, after clocking 18:52.

On Sunday, Nathan Edmondson took third place at the Thirsk 10-mile Road Race.

He was just 33 seconds behind winner Graham Rush of Leeds City AC in 52:17 - only 28 seconds outside a club record which has stood since 1990.

Brit Tate and Sally Malir were both in the top 10 of their age categories, with the latter's time of 1:14:00 a tantalising two seconds off the all-time club mark for the distance.

Sunday also saw Jane McCarthy excel at the Liverpool Half Marathon, as she registered her best time for the distance in over five years with a 1:28:04.

That placed her 140th, in a field of over 2,000 runners.

And also notching a similar time over 13.1 miles was Rob Cunningham, with 1:27:40 at the Bath Half.