MORE than 20 Radcliffe AC members received top tips when elite endurance runner Steve Vernon paid a visit to the club.

Vernon is the English Cross Country Champion and an eight-time Great Britain international, who has competed in the World Cross Country and World Mountain Running Championships.

His coaching session was organised in conjunction with England Athletics. Runners were able to chat to him at Coney Green before heading off to the Nellie Halstead Track at Cam’s Lane for a tough training session.

On the racing scene, it was the women who took the honours. Anna Lupton was back on form after recovering from the London Marathon when she was first woman home in the New Dungeon Ghyll Fell Race in Great Langdale in the Lake District.

She covered the 3.5 mile course with a gruelling 2,100 feet of climbing in a record time. Donna Cartwright was first woman in the Stanhill Fell Race at Accrington despite a traumatic start.

She and daughter Jenna, racing in the junior event of just under two miles, were late arriving at the race. Jenna managed to race immediately and organisers held on a few minutes for mum Donna to get changed and on the start line.

To top it all Cartwright’s shoelace snapped as she set off but she still managed to finish the five miles with 800 feet of climbing, in first place.