Britain's oldest fell-marathon roared back on Saturday as the 71st Three Peaks Fell Race produced new champions in Tom Evans and Helen Leigh on a brutally hot day across Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough. Evans, the Tokyo Olympic 10,000m runner-turned-mountain athlete, won the men's race in 3:02:17 — comfortably outside the course record but a striking margin given the conditions — while Leigh of Inverness Harriers edged Catherine Williamson by just 31 seconds to take the women's title in 3:49:13.
The 24.2-mile loop from Horton-in-Ribblesdale carried 1,608 metres of climbing and a heat advisory before the gun, with starting temperatures already pushing past 20°C and the second peak baking under direct sun. Of the 730 starters who registered for the senior race, 567 completed the course and 163 dropped — an unusually high attrition rate that organisers attributed almost entirely to the heat. Several leading runners required medical attention at the Hill Inn checkpoint between Whernside and Ingleborough as the temperature peaked.
Evans took control on the rocky descent off Pen-y-ghent and never relinquished the lead, building a 16-minute margin by the line. Behind him, Jordan Clay of Keswick AC ran a controlled second half to finish second in 3:18:01 and Annadale Striders' Timothy Johnston rounded out the podium in 3:22:06. Last year's runner-up Andrew Davies, slipping after a mid-race wrong turn, recovered to finish fourth. Evans, who has now added the Three Peaks to a CV that includes UTMB and Western States, said afterwards he had "felt the heat" early but settled into a rhythm "by trying to imagine the wind".
The women's race was the closer of the two. Williamson, a former senior international and last year's runner-up, led off Whernside before Leigh closed on the long flag-stoned descent into Hill Inn. The pair traded the lead through the final climb of Ingleborough until Leigh broke clear in the boggy run-in, holding on for a 31-second win. Wharfedale Harriers' Molly Browne completed the women's podium in 4:02:25. The Inverness winner becomes the first Scottish woman to take the title since Angela Mudge in 2002.
The Three Peaks remains one of the most coveted trophies on the UK fell-running calendar, and the race traditionally serves as a marker for selection towards the home international and the Snowdon International. Race director Caitlin Rice said organisers were already reviewing heat-mitigation protocols ahead of next year given the warming trend in late-April Yorkshire weather, with the option of an earlier start time on the table for 2027. For now, the headlines belong to Evans and Leigh — and to a 71-year-old race that, even in unseasonal sunshine, refused to compromise on its reputation as Britain's marathon with mountains.