Keighley and Craven's Laurence Hellawell missed out ringing in the New Year on a high by the width of a vest.

Already deep in training for the London marathon in four months time, Hellawell lost out to Ilkley's Jason Helmsley in a sprint finish to the New Year Resolution fun run at Silsden -- a race now in its 15th year.

They clocked identical times of 16mins 36secs. Both had run the previous day at Haworth and to get some training miles under his belt Hellawell had run over to the race from his home in Keighley.

Eight-times Silsden winner Dave Throup (16.43) claimed third spot in his first race in more than two years ago after suffering achilles trouble.

Keighley & Craven runners Martin Horbury (16.57) and Steve Hornby (17.13), a recruit from Bradford Airedale, filled the next two places.

The first woman home in 22 minutes was Sarah Fotherby.

Almost 60 runners turned out in a race sponsored by Sun-Pat/Nestle with all proceeds going to the British Diabetic Association. Only two of the runners, organiser Paul Buckley and Pete Metcalfe, had done all 15 races.

n Ian Holmes followed up his Stoop win with success over the same Haworth hill in the Auld Lang Syne race. He clocked 36.29, more than two minutes clear of former Bingley colleague Sean Winstanley, now with Leeds City.

Another Bingley rising star Rob Jebb set a new course record for the eight mile Tor-sponsored Ogden reservoir race. Despite Saturday's high winds the BT engineer knocked three and a half minutes off the previous best.

The 23-year-old who earned his fell running England vest last year was chased by Steve Oldfield, who took a wrong turning. Despite a lengthy detour Oldfield took second place for the second successive year and was still inside the old record.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.