BIRTHDAY boy Jonny Mellor showed he is the king of speed after taking the men’s title in Tuesday’s Ribble Valley 10K road race.

The Liverpool Harriers ace has excelled this year as one of Britain’s top long-distance runners.

He picked up bronze in the 5,000m race at August’s UK Championships, finishing behind winner Mo Farah, and is a big hope for GB at London 2012.

In one of his final outings of the year, Mellor underlined his obvious class by stealing top honours by breaking the Ribble Valley 10K record.

A lightning fast time of 29 minutes and 10 seconds was enough to smash the previous best of 29:21, set by Tom Lancashire in 2009.

In fact, such was the pace of Tuesday’s event that two other runners, the 2011 world triathlon champion Alistair Brownlee, and Ricky Steven-son, another of Britain’s brightest athletic hopes, also eclipsed Lancashire’s time of two years ago.

Brownlee trailed Mellor by five seconds, with Stevenson just a further two seconds back, as a high-quality men’s field saw eight competitors smash the 30-minute barrier.

It proved to be the second quickest 10k race of 2011, just behind the Manchester 10k event in May, which was won by Ethiopia’s world star Haile Gebrselassie.

It was a double celebration for Mellor, who was also toasting his 25th birthday.

The event, from Edisford Bridge on the outskirts of Clitheroe, is now firmly established as one of the premier road races in the north west, both in terms of size and quality.

Sadly, East Lancashire’s men failed to finish in the top 20.

Ben Fish was the pick of our local representatives, the Blackburn Harrier finishing 22nd in 30:47.

Club-mate Karl Billington was 34th overall, but second best in the junior section, in 31:12, while the race’s 2008 winner, former Pendle man Ben Lindsay, came home in 31:08 to finish 31st.

Harriers’ Tom Cornthwaite was in 38th, Christopher Fell 49th for Rossendale Harriers and Dominic Mahoney of Blackburn in 62nd.

The women’s race was missing two high quality runners as Great Britain duo Sonia Samuels and Helen Clitheroe both pulled out on the eve of the event due to illness.

It was left to another GB star, Bedford and County AC’s Katrina Wootton, to lead the females home in 33:57, almost two minutes clear of nearest challenger Tessa Walker.

As usual, Clayton Harriers shone in the veteran classes with Phil Hall first over 50 and Richard Lawson leading the way in the over 70s.

John Chaplin of Blackburn Harriers came out in front in the over 55 category.

Harriers did take the ladies team title, thanks to the trio of Rachel Wood, Beckie Taylor and Samantha Murray, while the Clayton Harriers team came further back in fifth.