SOUTH Bank's Martin Fisher has become only the second person in the 90-year history of the Manchester to Blackpool race walk to achieve a hat-trick of consecutive wins.

His time of 8hrs 28mins 21secs gave him first place in the 50-mile event, the 71st ever held, to add to his victories in the last two.

Rob Gilroy, of INL Shamrocks, took the second handicap place in 10-16-17, and the York CIU team finished second in the Northern Area placings.

INL's Dick Cole retired, while Tang Hall Spartans' Wally Johnson finished in 10hrs 27mins 12secs.

Johnson, however, missed his first York CIU 10k Race Walk League race in about 15 years due to injury sustained in the Manchester-Blackpool race.

Poppleton Road Bri-stars' Phil Holdsworth made the most of home advantage to win that league event, the final encounter of the season.

Holdsworth clocked 66 minutes 51 seconds on his home course to take his second league victory of the season, ahead of runner-up Mark Bryne (INL) 56-59 and third-placed Ellis Pickering (South Bank) 60-09.

Tang Hall's Sean Martindale recorded the second fastest time of the season over the four-lap course held in the British Sugar complex, his 48-55 being bettered only by Huntington All Stars' Graham Jackson at Fulfordgate.

In the 17th annual York Postal Workers' Uniform Walk, competitors from Mount Pleasant, Brighouse, Birmingham, Tyneside, Alford and Birch Park could not prevent the York team from winning the team competition.

Sean Martindale 50mins 16secs, Dennis Jackson 50-56, Kev Goodwin 60-02 and A Cuthbert (62-44) were second, third, eighth and tenth, respectively, over the post office circuit of Marygate and Clifton.

The York Ladies' team of M Betts, T Johnston and S Thompson achieved a similar success in the ladies' race.

The York CIU 10k Championship, which has been won by Huntington All Stars for the last two years, Graham Jackson having won it in 1999, took place yesterday at British Sugar.