Holmfirth Harriers’ men performed brilliantly to help their team finish sixth at the Northern Athletics Cross Country Championships held at Pontefract racecourse.

Mark Buckingham was the stand-out performer for the men over the 12km course, finishing ninth out of 700 athletes in a very strong field, which featured Bingley’s 2012 Olympic triathlon gold medalist Alistair Brownlee.

Buckingham completed the race in a time of 38 minutes 29 seconds, just 17 seconds behind the eventual winner Andrew Davies, of Stockport, who pipped Brownlee to the line leaving Davies’ teammate Patrick Martin to collect bronze in a time of 38.01.

Dave Watson was the next best finisher for the Harriers, coming home in 46th (41-10), while Richard Anderson was 58th (41-46), followed by Peter Brookes 76th (42-23), Richard Smith 82nd (42-46) and Dave Turnbull, who returned from injury, 100th (43-25).

Chris Beadle and David Williams completed the Harriers’ line up, finishing 303rd (48-56) and 393rd (51-12) respectively.

Morpeth Harriers collected the Northern title for the men on 91 points.

Meanwhile, the ladies turned up to the championships with a depleted team after the 2014 Northern Champion, Katie Walshaw, missed out due to injury.

But despite this, Helen Berry (right) ran a terrific race, equalling last year’s 13th position in 30-35 over the 8km course.

Helen Fines also had a strong race, having recently returned from injury, finishing 37th (32-51), while Zoe Storr enjoyed the race with a pleasing 132nd place (37-28) in a field of almost 350 athletes.

Winner was Stockport Harriers’ Elle Vernon in 28-22, while the overall team title went to Yorkshire champions Rotherham.

Mark Buckingham was also on the start line at the Alsager 5 – the UK’s biggest five-mile road race.

From a field of 900 athletes, Buckingham and three other athletes quickly moved ahead of the field and a gap of over 20 seconds was maintained after the first three miles.

As the athletes rounded the final loop to the finish at Alsager Sport Centre, Ieuan Thomas, of Cardiff AC, emerged as the leader, winning in 24 minutes 3 seconds, just six seconds ahead of Mark Draper, of Bedford & County AC in 24.09 and third placed John Beattie, of Newham & Essex Beagles AC in 24.12.

Buckingham proved his training is going well with fourth place in 24.18.

First lady home was Helen Clitheroe, of Preston Harriers, the 41-year-old showing fine speed with a time of 27.14.