Swindon Harriers opened the autumn season with an excellent set of results at the Midland Counties Road Relay Championships at Birmingham’s Sutton Park.

The senior men’s A team produced their best ever result with a stirring fifth place to beat last year’s seventh with Matt Woodward producing a thrilling finale as he moved from seventh to fifth in the final kilometre.

Team manager Simon Dill said: “Woody [Woodward] was still 27 seconds down on the guys ahead at the top of the first hill but he gradually reeled them in and when he came around that final corner to the finish the noise from all of us supporting was amazing.

“That was something special and overall it was a brilliant day.

“While we don’t all train together we all know each other well and support each other and that’s why we have such a strong team spirit."

To underline the club’s growing strength in depth the B squad finished 21st overall of the 114 teams and second among B teams, the C squad were 32nd and second among C teams and last but not least the D squad also finished second in their category in 63rd overall.

On top of Woodward’s thrilling finish, Simon Byrne ran his fastest time on the course, which was good enough for equal fifth fastest time overall on the day, with Ben Lines, Luke Byrne and Harry Woods all running their fastest ever times.

The senior women’s team can also take great heart from fielding a team for the first time as they finished 46th of 82 teams.

In the young athletes' races, the club’s U13 boys’ team delivered a superb victory.

They never looked back once James Mayneord gave them the lead on the opening leg with the equal fastest time of the day and Finley Byrne and Jesse Bryant secured a brilliant win.

The B squad of Olly Hughes, Dylan Necrews and Hamish Murray also impressed finishing 12th overall and were the second B team.

The other medal winners were the U17 women’s squad of Ella Spencer, Bella Ryder and Eloise Foster.

After the opening two legs the club were in fifth, which left Foster perfectly placed to come through strongly for the bronze medals, matching the success they enjoyed in the under 15s age group a year ago.

The B squad of Meredith Prosser, Faith Herring and Carley Lainton finished 13th and first B team and  the U13 girls squad of Elsie Scrase, Ellie Charlesworth and Charissa Griffiths-Clack were 12th .

The U17 men’s squad of Anubis Molina-Zekri, Alex Williams and Arthur Widdows also finished 12th.