A team of six Manx Fell Runners’ headed to the British Athletics Fell and Hill Relays event centred on the small village of Appletreewick in the Yorkshire Dales on Saturday.

Due to restrictions there were limitations on numbers this year, but there was still in the region of 900 competitors in total. 

The relays consisted of four legs, two individuals and two pairs, one of which was a navigation leg.

The race course terrain was made up of flat trails, long, tussocky and boggy fell with some really sharp steep climbs sprinkled in between.

Spending the pre-race evening in the team yurt huddled round the log burner stretching, drinking green tea and limbering up (or swilling down fish and chips with a couple of pints in the local pub as the case may be!) team tactics were to set off fast so Nick Colburn was on leg one with five miles of tough running ahead of him and some hot competition.

As always, he ran hard and finished in an excellent 26th position. He then passed the batten onto top youngster Harry Kneen and current Manx fell league champion Sam Jones who headed off on the first pairs’ leg, a longer tour of the surrounding fells.

Fell Running
Sam Jones and Harry Kneen on the first of the two pairs' legs at the British Fell and Hill Relay championships last Saturday (Tom Cringle)

They ran well together, pushing each other all the way on what proved to be a long, tough slog. At the changeover to leg three the Manx team was in 30th position.

Leg three was the navigation leg and the responsibility of the two veteran members of the team, Lloyd Taggart and Tom Cringle.

There was a tough course to navigate, with numerous uncrossable walls criss-crossing the route, along with some unexpected steep ravines.

The pair kept their focus, avoiding the temptation to access one checkpoint via a swim down river. They finished with the team holding onto 43rd position.

Last off was Saul Bradley on leg four, another short and tough route. This was his first race off-island and, having had a long wait through the day, he was chomping at the bit to get going.

With a great run he brought MFR home in 47th position overall out of the 145 teams. A fine performance from a small fell club whose opportunities for regular national level competition are limited.

Next year the relays are in Wales.