Tim Hartley chalked up his fourth Charnwood Hills victory in five years - but it might have been different if one of his main rivals had not lost both his shoes in the mud barely a mile into the 13-mile fell race!

Tim Hartley chalked up his fourth Charnwood Hills victory in five years - but it might have been different if one of his main rivals had not lost both his shoes in the mud barely a mile into the 13-mile fell race!

Hartley, 38, followed up his first Leicestershire cross-country title triumph three weeks earlier with a smooth success in the popular Bowline Climbing Club event.

It reinforced his claim as the undisputed king of the hills in the County, having also won the race in 2002, 2004 and 2005.

The break in that sequence came in 2003 when Hartley did not contest the event - the year when British duathlon champion Martin Yelling took the crown.

The pair were in opposition for the first time on the start line at Anstey Martin High School on Sunday but the competition had hardly begun when it was all over.

With the 280-strong field soon having to negotiate cloying mud, the 33-year-old Yelling became one of several runners to lose footwear - and, while most suffered by losing only one shoe, Yelling was left digging out both with his hands from nine inches of mud!

Afterwards, the Loughborough-based triathlete reflected ruefully: "Once that happened, it was game over. You can't afford to give two minutes to someone like Tim who's fit and running so well."

Yelling, who is building up for his first crack at an Ironman triathlon, in Austria in July, tried hard to make up the gap but Hartley began to stamp his authority on the race, opening a one-minute lead from the chasing pack as they rounded Beacon Hill, the halfway point.

Yelling went through in fourth place and he was up to second at the top of Rough Hill. But, by then, Hartley had doubled his advantage to two minutes.

Over the closing three miles, Yelling's earlier effort took its toll and Harborough's Pete Swaine powered through just ahead of the third-placed Yelling, though Hartley still had 2min 50sec in hand on the runner-up at the finish - and was breathing easily, too.

Hartley got home in 83min 3sec, nearly four minutes down on last year but, considering that another half-mile had been added to the course, it was pretty impressive. He insisted afterwards that he had not pushed the pace that much, which begs the question whether the course record - Sean Fenwick's 1993 time of 76 minutes for 12-and-a-half miles - might be within his compass.

Fenwick, now 35, was one of a handful of former champions in the field but a bad stitch in his lower back undermined his chances, though he was really using the event in a bid to race himself fit after doing very little since October.

In the women's race, Zoe Fleming, running for Bowline Climbing Club, extended her recent form over the country in the Derby Runner League to clinch an emphatic victory.

The 28-year-old, who has come on leaps and bounds since finishing fifth in around 1hr 43min in 2004, was three minutes faster than that.

She was 45th overall in 1hr 40min 6sec, 8min 37sec clear of Loughborough Students' runner-up C Bailey, with Owls' veteran Debbie Naylor third in 1.50.32.

Fleming puts her improvement down to a spell of training before Christmas when she ran reps for the first time which have boosted her basic speed.

Men (292 finishers): 1 T Hartley (Barrow) 1.23.03, 2 P Swaine (Harb) 1.25.53, 3 M Yelling (Bedford) 1.26.32, 4 P Chritchlow (Beaumont) 1.26.48, 5 I Botheroyd, 1.28.42, 6 P McNight 1.29.32, 7 R Whitelegg (Hk) 1.30.17, 8 M Couldwell (Ch) 1.30.35, 9 G North (M40, Barrow) 1.30.53, 10 D Bailey (Milton Keynes) 1.30.58, 11 J Maddocks (Wrk) 1.30.59, 12 P Devine-Wright (FRA) 1.31.31, 13 S Fenwick (Harb) 1.32.37, 14 R Brown 1.33.23, 15 M Rose (M40, Shepshed) 1.33.25, 16 I Paramore (M40, Barrow) 1.33.47, 17 R Pullen (Bowline) 1.34.06, 18 M King (Birstall) 1.34.43, 19 P Gregory (Ch) 1.34.54, 20 O Cox (Desford) 1.35.27, 21 S Douglas (Ivanhoe) 1.35.43, 22 M Williams (M45, Kenilworth) 1.36.25, 23 S Shanks (Holme Pierrepont) 1.36.33, 24 J Mould (M45, Shepshed) 1.36.38, 25 M Bridges (Owls) 1.36.49. Teams: 1 Barrow, 2 Beaumont, 3 Owls

Women (73 finishers): 1 Z Fleming (Bow-line) 1.40.06, 2 C Bailey (L'boro Students) 1.48.43, 3 D Napier (F35, Owls)1.50.32, 4 A Carlin (F45, Rugby) 1.51.11, 5 D Marsden (Beaumont) 1.51.19, 6 L Porter (F45, West End) 1.53.41, 7 H Byrne (F40, Holme Pierrepont) 1.55.28, 8 J Davisworth (F50, Beaumont) 1.55.56, 9 K Lundy (F40, Rugby) 1.57.08, 10 A Heading (F35, Milltown) 1.57.13. Teams: 1 Holme Pierrepont, 2 Rugby, 3 Bowline.

Veterans - M40: G North (M40, Barrow) 1.30.53. M45: M Williams (M45, Kenilworth) 1.36.25. M50: S Bolton (Wrk) 1.37.18. M55: M White (Hunc)1.54.07. M60: D Higgs (Shepshed) 1.52.50. M65: T Illston (Bowline) 1.59.17. M70: G Oliver (Hk) 2.10.56. F35: D Napier (Owls) 1.50.32. F40: H Byrne (Holme Pierrepont) 1.55.28. F45: A Carlin (Rugby) 1.51.11. F50: J Davisworth (Beaumont) 1.55.56. F55: S Butcher (Shelton) 2.06.29.