PICKERING athlete Richard Buck has been named the North-East Young Sportsman of the Year.

Buck, 17, will be England's only representative in the 400m at the Junior Commonwealth Games in Melbourne next month and the rising star already boasts a personal best of 47.31 seconds.

He also finished second at the AAA under-20 Championships and was on the reserve list for the Athens Olympics.

The Nestl Rowntree athlete will receive a cheque for £2,500 from sports minister Richard Caborn at a London ceremony on December 6 when the overall Sportsman of the Year will also be revealed.

An additional £8,000 in sponsorship and a cheque of £2,500 for the winner's chosen school, college or club will then be handed over.

A pleased Buck said: "I spend a lot of time travelling to be able to get the training and coaching that I need to achieve my ambitions so I am delighted that my hard work and effort has been recognised through this award. I am now training for the Junior Commonwealth Games and will then look towards the Senior Commonwealth Games in 2006."

Chris Cracknell, chief executive of OCS, said: "Richard has shown great levels of maturity and professionalism beyond his years and I wish him the best of luck in his field for the future."

The award is sponsored by OCS - the cleaning, catering and office security providers.

Knavesmire Harriers made a good start to the West Yorkshire Cross-country League at Shipley where Cameron Brooks finished seventh in a time of 33 minutes and 44 seconds.

Andy Bissell (35mins 3secs) ran a strong last lap for 25th place passing team mate Neil Strange (27th - 35-11). Kevin Langan (71st - 38-26), Andy Booth (78th - 38-48) and Darren Hendley (90th 39-31) completed Knavesmire's six scoring members with a total of 298 points to finish eighth out of 18 clubs.

They were supported by Giles Hawking (111th 40-19),Tony Stanbridge (176th 47-21), Richard Gott (177th 47-42), Mark Sullivan (48-12) and Chris Rowley (50-20).

Otley's Ian Fisher headed the 191-strong field over the nine-kilometre undulating muddy course 191 runners in 31 mins and 24 secs.

Anne Hoban (Wakefield Harriers) was equally dominant in the women's five kilometre race, winning by 69 seconds.

Knavesmire's women finished fifth in the team race.

Their four scoring runners were Fiona Strange (17th - 23mins 4 secs), Rebecca Weekes (21st 23-21), Kate Wiggins (34th - 24-13) and Laura Ross (62nd 26-31). Andrea Calladine also ran, finishing 83rd.

Updated: 10:52 Wednesday, October 20, 2004