ENGLISH champion Rob Hope has narrowly failed to win an unprecedented fourth consecutive British Fell Championship.
Needing to win the fourth and final counter in Wales to be sure, he could manage only eighth at the Black Mountains Race, at 17 miles the longest event in this year’s series.
To compound his disappointment, his main rival Tim Davies from Mercia was the race winner to take the title.
Hope’s victory at Dollar in Scotland and second in the English round at Sedbergh has earned the Chorley based man the silver medal ahead of Dark Peak’s Lloyd Taggart.
Ian Holmes therefore remains the only man to have won four British titles, but having taken five years to get them, Hope can yet match that feat.
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