Tameside Euro-MP Chris Davies has been crowned UK over-50 ultra-distance running champion for 2012.

The national ‘Runfurther’ championships take account of the best four results in a series of up to 12 off-road races over distances of between 31 and 61 miles.

Davies (58) took a commanding lead after winning outright a 56 mile Peak District race in September, and securing one of the best ever times for his age in a 50 mile Yorkshire race last month.

He finished the season in fifth position overall and first in the over-50 category.

The Liberal Democrat MEP, who is a member of Saddleworth Runners and has been competing since he was 14, describes himself as “just a good club runner”.

Chris Davies said:

“I’ve never had the speed of the great runners but I seem to be able to just keep going when others start to fade.  It’s what every Liberal Democrat has to do to survive in politics!

“So far my old knees haven’t let me down.  Maybe that’s because these days I do most of my training in a gym, either in the basement of the European Parliament or in Greenfield, the village where I live.”