RUNNING for south west counties in the School Games at Sheffield, City of Salisbury’s 16-year-old star sprinter Jake Ness ended his 2013 season well in a head-to-head 400m battle against Scotland’s Ben Robbins, his greatest rival for the UK number one age group title.

In the last fixture to be staged at the historic Don Valley stadium before it is demolished, Robbins blazed away in the opening 100 metres, challenging Jake, pictured, to close the gap.

Into the final straight the Salisbury athlete just held on to second place but was unable to respond to the Scot’s fast new mark of 48.28sec. Several months younger than Robbins, Jake stopped the clock at 49.25 for a well-earned silver medal.

After a short break, he and the rest of the club’s sprint group now set their sights on winter training to prepare for more honours next year.

A rapid Kenyan, Boniface Kiprop, won the Hampshire Road Race League’s Victory 5-mile at Portsmouth in a notable 23min 50sec.

Stuart Holloway led Salisbury’s charge, his 26.02 personal best taking seventh spot and he was followed by Ben Brewster with 27.34, Aaron Wilson 28.42pb and Kevin Tilley 28.43 completing the A team.

Katie West with 30.55 and Ruth Thom 33.29 both set pbs and their team was completed by a determined run from Sally Greenslade, who clocked 34.53 despite jellyfish stings sustained abroad last week.

Other Salisbury finishers were Ian Shelley 30.10pb, Dave West 30.24, Adrian Woolvern 30.41, Nick Willetts 33.51pb, Simon Wiltshire 36.02, Andy Robbins 37.56pb, Jeanette Hardiman 38.55pb, Liz Roberts 39.43pb and Gordon Wiltshire 50.24.

In the Yeovil 5k, Rob Lomas was the club’s quickest with 18.51, closely followed by Simon Wiltshire 18.53 and then Steve Lomas 22.40, Bob Jeffery 26.45 and Gordon Wiltshire 31.08.

At half marathons, Clive Smith ran well in Chippenham to clock 1.32.56, with Kate Mansfield 1.41.22. In Bristol a good 1.48.41 came from Rosie Adlard and she was followed by Jerry Garrett 1.51.08 and Simon Adlard 1.58.05, while at Truro Chrissy Gorham took second place in her age group with 1.51.21 and John Gorham did 1.50.58.