AN Ilkley Harrier earned the right to represent her country by winning a race while another was excelling over in Norway this past weekend.

Hilda Coulsey ran home first in her age category at the AJ Bell Great North 10km.

The event started and finished in Newcastle’s Town Moor, a spacious 1,000 acre area of parkland.

This year’s race was special as it was chosen by England Athletics as a qualifying run for masters runners.

Those who qualified would then be eligible to run in an England vest in a specified international competition.

The route, which has a downhill start out of town, sees runners cross the Tyne Bridge and come back again into the city with an uphill return back into the park.

Hilda earned her England Age Group Master’s vest after finishing in 55.55.

Meanwhile Alison Weston undertook the 33km Sky Race on the Lofoten archipelago north of the Artic Circle, in the county of Nordland in Norway.

This challenging race with over 5,000ft of ascent saw runners deal with not only challenging terrain, but also wet and cold weather conditions.

The route starts from the fishing village of Laukvik on the north coast of the island of Austvalgoya and finishes in Svolvaer on the south coast of the island.

Alison had a fantastic run, completing the race in 5 hrs 42 mins and she finished in the top 50 per cent of female finishers.

Closer to home, this weekend saw the staging of the popular Eccup 10-mile road race.

The course takes in rural closed roads and a scenic route around Eccup reservoir outside Leeds.

Four Harriers took part, with Mark Hall the first over the line, finishing in 20th place overall out of a field of almost 650 runners.

Mark’s impressive time of 1.02.31, saw him take first prize in his age category.

Thomas Mountain was the second Harrier home, with Dylan Shinn hot on his heels, both managing a sub 1.15 finish.

Martin Stubbs also had a great run at this event, completing the course in an impressive 1:17:01.

Back to shorter distances, the weekly timed 5km parkrun events remained popular with the Ilkley Harriers this week, with 24 taking part in various events both at home and abroad, with superb results all round.

A first-place finish for Forrest Hamilton at the Bramley parkrun - completing the course in a speedy 18.56, well over a minute ahead of the second-place finisher.

Amanda Newham completed her 100th parkrun out in Malahide, just outside Dublin.

Simon Lorimer and Abigail Swales also flew the flag for the Harriers overseas.

The former completed the Tsujido kaihin koen parkrun in Japan while Abigail ran the one out in Wohrder See, Austria.

Lots of top ten finishing places also including for; Nick Kealey at the Lister Park parkrun, father and son Steve and Nathan Coy at the Burnley parkrun, James Horrex and Adam Gerrish at the Robert’s Park parkrun and Andrew Smith at the Harleston Magpies parkrun in East Anglia.