WHITE Horse Harrier Tim Traynor, home from his studies for the Christmas holiday, proved a class above in the third round at Banbury on Sunday.

Traynor, who is still an under 20 runner, blitzed the field with a powerful run in bitterly cold, but sunny conditions, winning by a clear margin of 38 seconds in 30mins 15secs from Newbury’s Marcus Bridger-Wilkinson.

However, despite Traynor’s heroics, Harriers had to settle for eighth place in the men’s team competition, with Paul Jegou next home for Harriers in 15th, with John Peake 65th.

Oxford City’s Steve Male, who was leading the overall men’s standings, was missing through illness, so it was left to Darrell Bellinger, hot off a plane from two weeks in Las Vegas, to lead his team home in sixth place.

Bellinger joins Male at the top of the overall men’s standings and now leads the senior men’s competition with two rounds to go.

Despite Male’s absence, City were strong enough to land the men’s team honours again and they now lead the Division 1 standings by a huge 184 points.

Excellent packing from Abingdon Amblers’ leading three runners could not see them to a podium position.

Simon Fisher, Les Newell and Paul Fernandez finished third, fourth and seventh respectively, but despite this, Abingdon finished sixth.

In the women’s race, talented 16-year-old Melissa Hawtin dominated from start to finish to win by a massive 48 seconds from Cirencester’s Jenny Manners.

Hawtin’s victory saw City finish in second place in the team event behind Headington Roadrunners, for whom Helen Barnes led the way in third place.

In the junior events, team of the day went to City’s under 15/17 girls.

Lauren Hawtin, Rebecca Byren and Ellie Burns occupied the top three positions to clinch a convincing victory, finishing 31 points in front of White Horse Harriers and a further point clear of their own B team.

The youngest age groups were dominated by Radley.

Nawal Elkirate won the under 11 girls’ prize, crossing the line in 5.01, while clubmate Robert Crowther did likewise in the boys’ event, clocking 4.39.

In the under 13 girls’ race, Megan Humphreys posted her third straight victory, recording a time of 8.04 to beat Banbury’s Tory Mobley by three seconds.

And Radley’s success continued in the under 13 boys’ competition, as Christian von Eitzen scorched to victory in 7.26, Banbury’s Logan Kelling second in 7.59.

In the under 15/17 boys’ event, Radley’s George Miller had to settle for second place as he was edged out by Newbury’s George Tuttle to be joined at the top of the overall standings by the Berkshire runner.

But Miller’s consolation was leading his team to a convincing team success – seeing off closest rivals Oxford City by ten points to stretch their lead in the title race over City.