Two Swindon Harriers runners narrowly missed out on the podium as they represented England in the international masters half marathon against Wales.

Gary O’Brien and Emma Hines were both just one place away from getting into the top three in the event taking place in Manchester last weekend in the over-50s races.

Putting in a fantastic performance in the over-50 men’s half marathon, O’Brien was just seven seconds behind third place when he crossed the line in fourth with a time of 1 hour 17 minutes and 38 seconds.

He said: “It was frustrating to miss the podium as I was convinced during the race and seeing the other runners around me that I’d finished third M50 and it was only afterwards I realised it was fourth!”

Hines was also the fourth finisher in the over-50 women’s half marathon, although she was disappointed to be almost a minute behind the third-place runner.

She said: “It wasn’t good and I should have been a lot quicker. The trouble is and I don’t want to be sounding negative but I still feel slightly wiped out after London and I have not really recovered enough to run that distance. But Gary and Mike [Gilbert] were amazing.”

Competing in the over-45s age group, Gilbert also had a good race in Manchester as he managed to finish in 11th place in a time of 1 hour 19 minutes and 8 seconds, Michael Tune had also made the trip to represent England, but unfortunately had to pull out due to falling ill on the eve of the race.

Elsewhere for the Harriers, the club also fielded a team at the British Masters Road Relay Championships at the Mallory Park motor-racing circuit and finished a creditable eighth with Courtenay Chessell clocking their fastest individual time on the opening stage.

The team which featured Chessell alongside Seb Reynolds, Michael Sloman, William Trew, Richard Martin, and Michael Passmore were in the men’s 35-40 race at the circuit near Leicester and were the second fastest side in the South West, only behind the winners Bristol and West.

At the Bedford International Games, Laila-Jae Belgrave broke the 12-second mark for the first time in the 80-metre hurdles with a personal best time of 11.96 seconds to consolidate her position at the top of the South West rankings and could even move into the top 20 of the UK rankings with that time.