Last Sunday saw the culmination of the fell running season with the annual British Fell Relay Championships, held north of the border in the hills around Broughton Heights near Edinburgh.

And Ambleside AC enjoyed success with their Women’s team pulling off a stunning victory. The four-leg relay involves a total of six runners, and Ambleside showed phenomenal strength in depth, and great team spirit, to win on a tough mountain course.

Led off by international Scout Adkin, they led early on after Leg one and were still in second place after a strong leg by their pair of Lou Osborn (recently crowned English Vet50 Champion) and Antonia Fan. The third leg was the tough navigational one and experienced Orienteer Natalie Beadle and partner Celia Powell closed the gap on leaders Carnethy AC down to two minutes, before Club Captain Sarah McCormack overhauled the leader and brought them home to victory with the fastest time of Leg four. Their winning time of 4 hours 04 mins 01 secs was over seven minutes ahead of the second place Carnethy team.

Their British Relay win followed hot on the heels of their victory at the prestigious Hodgson Brothers Mountain Relay just two weeks previously, where Ambleside Women held off a strong challenge from local rivals Helm Hill Runners to regain the trophy that they last won in 2017 in a fast time of 4 hours 36 mins 48 secs to win

The Hodgson Relay, held over in Patterdale, saw success across the board for Ambleside with their Open team taking 2nd place for the fourth time in a row behind Keswick AC, and their Men’s Vet 40 team also finishing runners-up to Borrowdale AC.

Sandwiched in-between the two relays was the annual Langdale Horseshoe fell race which was won by Ambleside’s Matt Elkington. Run over a 21km course with 1450m of climbing, this is one of the acknowledged Lakeland ‘classics’, and victory for Elkington also meant he was confirmed as the Men’s English Champion for 2022. The same race also saw Lou Osborn confirmed as Women’s Vet45/50 English Champion, and Jon Deegan secure the same award in the Men’s Vet55 category.