Swindon Harriers under-13s boys have become the club’s first-ever national champions after claiming victory in the English Road Relay Championships.
The group of youngsters have had a very strong season, claiming victory at the Midland Counties Road Relay Championships event at Birmingham’s Sutton Park two weeks ago, and now have taken home the national title.
The squad of James Mayneord, Finley Byrne and Jesse Bryant made up the successful trio that won by an astonishing margin of 18 seconds quicker than the next-best team in North Somerset AC.
Team manager John Dill said: “It is the first national title that I can ever remember for the club.
“Obviously they won the Midlands title well but yesterday was a significant step up and the three lads were terrific.
“James brought them home in seventh on the very tough opening leg and then we saw a storming run by Finley, who really is a chip off the old block (his dad is Simon Byrne) to bring them into the lead.
“Jesse then took over for the final leg and he blasted away from the field. To win the national title by such a distance was mind-blowing.”
The B squad of Dylan Necrews, Olly Hughes and Hamish Murray also competed strongly to finish 25th overall and fourth among B teams.
The club’s senior men’s team of Ben Lines, Harry Woods, Fletcher Hart, Simon Byrne, Isaac Mould and Matt Woodward also had good reason to celebrate as they produced the best result in the club’s history finishing 30th of 70 teams.
That finish beat their previous best of 34th last year and the team has improved their result in each of the last four championships, 37th in 2021 and 58th in 2019.
Dill said: “That is the best result we have had in the Nationals, so I’m delighted with the performance and result.
“We mixed it with a lot of other really good clubs and to finish 30th and 57th for the B team (10th B team overall) was really good overall.”
The U13 girls also performed well with the trio of Elsie Scrase, Freya McMeeking and Charissa Griffiths Clack finishing 25th of 51 teams.
The U17 women’s squad of Ella Spencer, Carley Lainton and Eloise Foster will be pleased by their finish of 10th place overall as the whole squad will return next season.
The U17 men’s team of Anubis Molina Zekri, Alex Williams and Arthur Widdows finished 53rd.
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