KNAVESMIRE Harriers had a lucrative day at Thirsk racecourse.

Although there was no horseracing the local running club collected the special £200 prize for the club with the most finishers in the popular Thirsk ten-mile road race.

This is the second year that the organising club, Thirsk and Sowerby Harriers, have offered this special award and Knavesmire have won it both times.

Knavesmire men's team, although without Jon Pavis, who recently won the Yorkshire track 5000metres silver medal, still collected second team prize, with Andy Capel (13th), Dave Chippett (15th), Barry Atkinson (24th) and Ian Anderson (43rd), only headed by the very strong Otley AC team.

Ian Anderson also collected the trophy for first place in the Road Runners club open category, whileHarold Dobson added to Knavesmire's success with first place in the Over-60 section.

The ladies from Knavesmire were not to be outdone by their male counterparts.

Despite also missing a key member - Yorkshire marathon bronze medallist Mandy Clarke - they took first team prize, with Christine Shouksmith (tenth) and second O/40 Beverley Hodgson (11th). The first O/45 Rebecca Weeks was 19th with Veronica Mackley in 35th place.

This was a super performance from Veronica as it was the first race she has completed since her fall in the London Marathon which required hospital treatment for serious injuries to her hand.

In the open men's race, Ian Fisher (Otley AC) had almost two minutes in hand over Kevin McCluskey (Salford Harriers) and John Hunter (Loftus AC).

The ladies' winner, Melanie Hayward (Road Runners Club) had a huge margin of three and a half minutes ahead of second-placed Sheila Allen (Houghton & Peterlee).

The wheelchair race saw popular para-Olympian Tanni Grey-Thompson again fail to beat BBC commentator husband Ian Thompson. Tanni, who lives at Redcar and competes for New Marske Harriers, often competes in the Thirsk 10, and is always a favourite with local spectators.

In the supporting 5km race, young Wigginton athlete James Chapman ran well to take fourth place overall.

Taking place on the same day, the Blackpool marathon saw eight local runners performing very well.

Neil Strange (Knavesmire Harriers) had a superb run to take seventh place overall. Since turning 40 earlier in the year and so becoming a veteran in athletic terms, he has gone from strength-to-strength with a number of outstanding runs.

Also running really well, with his third marathon in just five weeks, was clubmate Wayne Coaker.

He was just outside his personal best with a time of 3hr 11min 41sec for 46th place out of 576 finishers. Coaker was just ahead of York Acorn's Colin Utterson in 51st place.

In the ladies' section Lorraine Jackson finished in 28th place with Susan Adams in 64th place, both running for Knavesmire Harriers.

Updated: 12:47 Friday, June 08, 2001