TWO new records were set at the finishing line of the gruelling 40-mile Keswick to Barrow walk at the weekend.

The number of people who managed to finish the walk was also up on last year with 672 out of 830 completing the event.

On Saturday, new records were set for the first boy and first girl to arrive at BAE Sports Club, on Hawcoat Lane, in Barrow. Alice Forster, from Chetwynde School, in Barrow, finished in nine hours 45 minutes and Chris Hartley, from Thorncliffe School, in Barrow, after six hours 37 minutes.

Secretary of the walk Neil Tyson said 60 runners took part in the event, which was the highest number in many years. He said usually only two or three woman runners took part but this year saw seven competing for the fastest time. Rose White was the first woman to finish with a time of six hours 25 minutes. She was among the ten runners and walkers taking part on behalf of Kendal Mountain Rescue Team. Last year's winner of the woman's trophy, Gill Thompson, from Barrow, came in second.

The first person to finish, with a time of only four hours 48 minutes, was Ian Robert, a member of the Royal Navy Team from Portsmouth. Last year's winner Craig Steele came in second.

A special trophy is to be presented this year to Gordon Ingall, of Dalton-in-Furness. It is the 30th time he has completed the walk. He finished on Saturday in six hours 50 minutes.

Organisers are hoping to raise more than £50,000 for various charities, many of them local, from Saturday's walk.

"At the moment we predict we will have raised about £44,376 but the prediction is always less than we actually do get in. We are hoping it will be more than £50,000 to beat last year's record of £47,500.

"We will decide which charities will benefit in October once we have got all the requests in and all the nominations from people who took part," said Mr Tyson.

Organisers have already set themselves a target for next year's event. "We would like to get more than a 1,000 people taking part next year and increasing the number of juniors participating is an avenue we hope to explore," said Mr Tyson.

May 16, 2003 10:31