SWINDON Harriers are celebrating arguably their best ever set of results at the autumn Midland Counties Road Relay Championships.

The Under 17 men secured an outstanding victory as the trio of Josh Burns, Theo Cinnamond, and Fletcher Hart produced a terrific display to lift the regional title by just 14 seconds after a thrilling race.

The compelling race served up a grandstand finish as Hart, who is coached by John Dill, took over for the final stage in third place and duly carved his way to the front clocking the second fastest individual time of the day.

For good measure, the B team of Jack Choules, Harry Edwards and Alex Williams finished 14th overall and first in their category as well.

And that wasn’t the only medal success for the club’s young athletes as the U15 girls squad of Ella Spencer, Bella Ryder - both of who are in Dill’s training group - and Eloise Foster (coach Bryan Clinton), also made the podium in third place.

To complete a good showing by the U15s, the second string of Carley Lainton, Lola Costajafrat and Faith Herring finished 11th and second B team.

Two further teams from the club made the top ten, making it an impressive five in total on the day across the various age groups from seniors to U13s.

The U13 boys’ trio of Reuben Linscott (coach Kevin Buttle), Oakley Hogan and Harry Burdekin - who ran the 10th fastest individual time overall - placed a very creditable seventh.

Then, in the U15 boys’ age group, the squad of Anubis Molina-Zekri - who clocked the seventh fastest time overall to bring the Harriers home in third on stage one - Joshua Steward, and Arthur Widdows finished 10th.

The senior men secured their selection for the National Championships this weekend at the same course with their highest position of eighth overall from 102 teams, with Simon Byrne (coach Neil England) catching the eye with a scorching time of 17mins 38secs - the fourth fastest of the day.

It was a performance that underlined their improvement, having placed 24th three years ago. But it is not only at the sharp end that the senior men are making an impression as the club displayed their increasing strength in depth by finishing three teams. The B team were fifth in their category and the C team third in theirs.

And with the likes of Courtenay Chessell and Omer Homer impressing for the B team, the make-up of the A squad is far from clear-cut when the action returns to Sutton Park on Saturday, October 8.