Athletics: Bingley's golden-oldies will be bidding for national glory on Sunday.

The celebrated over-60s trio of Gerry Spink, Fred Gibbs and John Smithurst are among the favourites for the British Veterans 5km Championships at Sutton Park in the Midlands.

They took the team title in the British Half Marathon Championships at Liverpool in August and will fancy their chances over a shorter distance.

Gibbs, who has only recently reached this age bracket, took the individual title on Merseyside with an impressive 79min 33sec, while Spink took the Yorkshire over-65s 10km title at Horsforth in a race where the 67-year-old had the beating of the over-60s winner.

The over-50s squad is made up of Les Haynes, Bob Dover and Baildon-based Neil Robson, and once again will be the team to beat.

Thackley-based Haynes has already taken the British individual over-55s title at Liverpool and is currently the Yorkshire 10km champion and will line up refreshed after some warm weather training on the continent.

The event in the Midlands means that Harriers will be weakened for Sunday's Nestle-Rowntrees ten-mile road race which incorporates the Yorkshire Veterans Championships .

The course is flat and tailor-made for fast times. Bingley's Eddie Irving should be to the fore in the over-40s category after recovering from an Achilles problem.

Irving showed he was on the road to recovery when finishing third in the recent 10km championship race at Horsforth.

There is a local fell race to consider on Saturday organised by Allan and Carol Greenwood.

The High Brown Knoll fell race starts from the Dusty Miller at Mytholmroyd with an 11am start over six-and-a-half miles with 1,050ft of ascent. A two-mile junior race starts at 11.05am.

Carol was in action herself last weekend when she finished third in an international uphill only race at Bergen over five miles.

In the men's event, Bradford-Airedale's Richard Findlow was disappointed with his 17th place in an event won by Italian Antonio Molinari.

Staying on the international fell racing scene, Ian Holmes justified his decision to decline the recent World Mountain Trophy race when he took first place in the Mount Kinabaloo fell race in Malaysia, smashing the seven-year course record by 26 seconds into the bargain.

The race started at an altitude of 6,000 feet and climbed to a summit at 13,455 feet which was attained first by the world sky running champion Bruno Brunot of Italy, with Holmes less than half-a-minute adrift.

The Bingley man powered home on the descent to win by over a minute from the Italian with previous course record holder and four-times winner Guiinus Salagan of Malaysia in third.

Borrowdale's Simon Booth and Jim Davis finished fourth and fifth respectively to give Britain the team prize with ten points to Italy's 18 points.

Mount Kinabaloo 21km (7,455ft ascent) - Men: 1 I Holmes (GB) 2-42-07 (record), 2 B Brunot (Italy) 2-43-12, 3 G Salagan (Malaysia) 2-45-15, 4 S Booth (GB) 2-49-30, 5 J Davis (GB) 2-52-16. Team: 1 GB 10pts, 2 Italy 18.

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