SEDBERGH'S Joe Symonds cantered to victory in the annual Nine Standards Fell Race from Kirkby Stephen but just failed to bag the course record and a £50 prize by a margin of only four seconds, writes Mike Addison.

But the 21-year-old, who is studying medicine at Dundee, still won a special prize of a litre bottle of whisky for being the first to the summit and by then he already had the race wrapped up.

He had broken loose from Borrowdale's Phil Davies and Keswick's Mark Denham-Smith on the long road section and at the turn had an unassailable lead which he stretched further on the long and steady four mile descent.

"I just went how I felt from the beginning," said a delighted Symonds afterwards. "Nobody went with me. I got a little lead which stayed a little gap until we got to the fell."

Towards the top a lightly built Symonds was buffeted by a strong wind but his sure footedness on the descent ensured that victory was his and at the finish he was two minutes and 17 seconds clear of Davies, clocking 55-19 which was four seconds adrift of Graham Schofield's record.

Afterwards, Symonds said that he was not aware that he was so close to the record and believed that if he had been pushed he could have pushed it that extra bit.

Davies and Denham-Smith crossed the line virtually together with just one second between them. Helm Hill's Billy Procter was first V40 in tenth place with Howgill's Graham Moffat challenging just 13 seconds behind. The first male V50 was Kendal's Mike Walsh who was a very creditable 12th.

The first woman was Borrowdale's Sandra Schofield who placed 43rd in 1-16-06 with Milnthorpe's Wendy Dodds, who was first lady V50, some two minutes adrift. First team were Borrowdale.

Race organiser Paul Brittleton was delighted with the turn out of 64 athletes and was also pleased with the quality of runners at the front end. "I took over the organisation of the race at the last minute," said Brittleton, who finished eighth. "Considering it was not that well advertised I thought the number of runners we had was excellent." All prizes were donated by Cumbria Kendal Scaffold Ltd.