UNBEATEN Steven Hepples will have to run in the final North Yorkshire and South Durham Harrier League fixture at Newton Aycliffe on Sunday to make sure of clinching his first senior men's championship.

The title will be decided on the best five runs of the six-race series, allowing athletes who have competed in all the events to drop their worst performance.

But Hepples, a Great Britain junior international, has only raced in four of the fixtures, and while he has accumulated a maximum 60 points he could still be caught by training partner Shaun O'Grady and Mandale's Rob Cole.

Hepples, 22, who won the races at Acklam Grange, Richmond, Whitby and Saltburn, will be in no mood to slip up now and will be aiming for another maximum haul of 15 points.

There will be an exciting finish in the senior women's championship, in which Darlington's Bernadette Taylor holds a one- point advantage over Carolyn Summersgill, of Middlesbrough and Cleveland. Both are well clear of third-placed Maxine Czarnecka, of Scarborough.

Both have competed in five events, and will be able to drop their worst performance when the final points totals are compiled. Taylor's placings have been 2-2-2-1-3, while Summersgill's run is 3-3-1-2-2.

If Summersgill, who has beaten the former English schools international twice in the series, wins again it would leave them level on points, and the title would be decided on countback.