A NEW course record for a half marathon famed for its freezing temperatures has been set by its female winner.

Melanie Hayward, from the Road Runners Club, completed this year's Knavesmire Harriers' Brass Monkey race in 1 hours 17 minutes 35 seconds - nearly four minutes faster than the previous fastest time.

The male winner, Ian Fisher, came to the finish line in 1:06:46, only ten seconds short of the existing record, which he holds.

The event saw about 1,000 serious runners race from the Law College, in the Knavesmire, out to Bishopthorpe and through Appleton Roebuck.

Brian Hughes, an organiser who has been associated with the race since it started about 18 years ago, said: "We called it the Brass Monkey because of the icy conditions of the first race, and we've seen some very low temperatures over the years.

"It was cold when you were out there running in shorts, but I've known it a lot colder than it was this year."

Eight members of Thirsk and Sowerby Harriers ran in the North Yorkshire and South Durham Cross Country League's first fixture of the season at Richmond.

Maureen Gibbs was the first lady veteran to finish, clocking 27min 18sec as she finished 31st of the 49 women runners. Sarah Somers finished in 29-35 and Karen Hudson, in her first cross-country race for Harriers, clocked 31-05.

Mervin Burn, in 21st place, was the first Thirsk and Sowerby runner to finish the men's race, which 159 finished. His time was 34min 06sec.

alter Busuttil was only three seconds behind. Stephan Tomaszewski was 105th (45-27), Hywel Smith 118th (42-01) and Alan Wikeley 119th (42-02).

Updated: 12:03 Monday, January 28, 2002