A GARAGE owner from Sittingbourne led a team of nine runners who climbed the three highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales in under 24 hours.

Dave Tomsett, of Tomsetts Garage, Stockbury, is a dedicated member of Gravesend Road Runners and Athletics Club. He and fellow club members were taking part for the second year running in the Fire Services Sub-24 Three Peaks Challenge. They had to climb Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike in England and Snowdon in Wales.

Mr Tomsett said: "We were delighted to storm through to third place out of 155 teams. Despite several members suffering injuries, we battled through snow, freezing wind and rain, to win, for the second successive year, the first mixed team prize.

"We picked up gold medals for finishing under 20 hours and managed to improve on our previous year's time by more than an hour. We actually completed it in 16 hours 43 minutes after running 21 miles and driving 500 miles."

Other team members were Louise Markwick, Sue Preston, Rob Haigh, Graham Melrose, Kevin Murison, Matt Dixon and drivers, Eric Pestell and Martyn Dyer.