MORE than 100 long distance runners had to be rescued on Saturday after wintry weather closed in on them.

The Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team managed to locate and rescue 100 runners who were taking part in the Hardmoors 55 race from Helmsley to Guisborough - including more than 30 suffering from hypothermia.

A spokesman for the CMRT said: "The volunteers were called into action for the fifteenth time this year when an annual long distance running event ran into problems with the weather.

"Around 300 runners had set off from Helmsley around 9am on Saturday morning to run the 55 miles to Guisborough.

"As the wintery weather closed in during the evening and a number of cases of hypothermia were developing the event was halted at Kildale.

"The rescue team were alerted at 8pm when Yorkshire Ambulance Service requested our help with 30-plus hypothermia cases to deal with at Kildale.

"We set up our control in Great Ayton and deployed some team members to Kildale to liaise with the event organisers. They reported 100 or so competitors at Kildale needing evacuation.

"Our two landrover ambulances were set to remote points on the route to help with competitors who were still running and a couple of team members in their personal 4x4 vehicles were then sent to Kildale to start moving some of the stranded runners.

"The distance was around five miles but took around 20 minutes due to appalling wintery conditions, at times the visibility was zero in the swirling snow and the covered road hard to make out. The ice under the snow on the road made road-holding entertaining to say the least.

"By 1pm or so the Team, along with personnel from Yorkshire Ambulance and the race organisers had managed to get all their competitors back to Guisborough and, once were sure that no-one was unaccounted for, we stood down around midnight.

"A long and difficult job that showed the Team's flexibility in coping with all situations."

Carl Faulkner, CMRT team leader, praised the competitors for being fully prepared for the conditions before taking on the challenge.

He said: "The events last night show how important it is to be prepared when you head out into the hills or on the Moors – because each Hardmoors competitor was well equipped, with appropriate winter clothing and knew how to read a map and use a compass, they were able to keep moving until they reached a place of safety."