A SUMMER of Alpine training has served Kendal AC's Sarah Tunstall well as she won the Great British selection race for next month's world championships in Wales.

Tunstall, 29, of Kirkby Stephen, was a comfortable winner of the two-lap race at Betwsy-y-Coed on Saturday, after coming out on top of a "good little battle" with Emmie Collinge.

"It went better than I had visions of it going," said Sarah, who has been training in Chamonix since April. "I just wanted to get in the top four to earn selection. I am really, really pleased by how it went."

Emmie, who lives in Italy and earlier this year recorded the fastest ever women's time to the summit of Snowdon, was stronger on the uphill but Sarah used her descending speed to great effect and eventually pulled away.

"I just kept working hard all the way round until we started descending on the second lap where I was able to relax coming into the finish," said Sarah, who said that her Alpine training had certainly paid dividends. "As good as the Lake District is, out there you can go out the door and climb 1,000 metres.

"I have been able to race out there as well. It has certainly improved my uphill-only running because that was a bit of a weakness and I wanted to get stronger this year."

Sarah clocked 36-33 and chasing her home were Emmie Collinge (37-12) and Emma Clayton (37-55). Ambleside's Sarah McCormack was fifth in 38-14.

Also qualifying for the Great British team was Helm Hill's Tom Addison who put an injury-blighted season behind him to finish fourth in a senior men's field that oozed quality. He was unable to compete with the Scottish pairing of Robbie Simpson (48-37) and Andrew Douglas (49-39), the full-time athletes dominating the three-lap race from the off.

Addison finished fourth in 51-08, nearly a minute behind Chris Smith, England's first counter in 50-09. Helm Hill's Mark Addison (53-51) was 18th while Ambleside's Tommy Horton was first U23 finishing 32nd overall in 56-49.

SEDBERGH'S Joe Symonds won the inaugural Salomon Glen Coe Skyline Race in the Scottish Highlands.

The event attracted 170 ultra athletes from Spain, Belgium, France and from across the UK to compete in an event which Joe said "pushed the boundaries over what it is possible to race on."

Joe, 32, who lives in Glasgow and runs for Shettlestone AC, won the 52-kilometre race, which included 4,000 metres of ascent, in a time of seven hours, 36 minutes and 21 seconds.

Swede Emelie Forsberg, who lives in France, won the women's event and placed second overall in seven hours, 44 minutes and 19 seconds.

At one point the race took runners over the Aonach Eagach Ridge - the most exposed in mainland Britain. "It was two kilometres of hairy scrambling along a narrow ridge," said Joe. "It was not possible to run on."

"The things that made the race interesting was that there were these rocky scrambling bits that no-one in Britain has ever raced over before and it was also quite long, certainly the longest distance I have ever raced over," said Joe.