Two young Swindon runners made it into the top ten at the South West Schools’ Championships that took place in Somerset this weekend.

The event hosted in Ilton, Somerset brought together the best cross-country runners in the South West and two runners from Swindon made the top ten.

Ella Spencer was the best finisher from the Swindon Harriers as she finished fifth in her category after an excellent run, with Charissa Griffith-Clack also making the top ten, finishing eighth in the minor girls’ race, comfortably the fastest Wiltshire runner.

Wiltshire champion Anubis Molina-Zekri made a strong start to his race but was afflicted by a shin injury that meant he could only finish 20th.

Finley Byrne also had the first of two impressive performances of the weekend as he came home in 25th place, being the second point scorer for Wiltshire and securing his place in the county team for the English Schools’ Cross Country Championships.

Byrne would then finish first in the under-13 boys’ race at the Oxfordshire Cross Country League on the same day as his father, Simon Byrne, also claimed victory in the senior men’s race.

Simon Byrne said: “For Finley the Oxford League was his main event of the weekend as he really wants to win the league title overall.

“His win means it is all going to come down to the last race to see who wins overall victory.”

The senior men’s team finished their race with a one-two as behind Byrne finished Ben Cole, as the Swindon Harriers completed a team victory with Max Harrison-Tosatto also finishing in the top ten and Isaac Scott, Harry Woods, and Courtenay Chessell inside the top 18.

The senior women had their best result of the season with Chloe Powell coming home in fourth, Emma Hines not far behind in seventh, and Jade Bennett in 33rd to see them finish in second place in the team standings.

In the under-13 girls’ race the Harriers had three runners in the top five as Ellie Charlesworth came second, Freya McMeeking fourth, and Esha Bhalerao fifth as they also won the team event.

Rookie Pippa Wall was runner-up in the under-11s with Harriet Jones fourth and Martha Linscott seventh to earn another club victory. Imogen Beard was fifth in the under-19s race.

Wilfred Ryer and Riley Tonner both made the top ten of the under-11s age group with Rhys Jones runner-up in the under-19s event.