RUGBY & Northampton AC’s senior men’s team claimed third place in the annual Midlands cross-country relay in Wolverhampton on Saturday.
A total of 63 teams took part in the race with R&N claiming their first medal in the competition.
Abedom Beyene ran first for R&N with a time of 19:33 and brought the team back in seventh place, not far off the pace of the leading runners.
Alistair McDonnell (19:29) produced another outstanding performance to pull back another place before handing over to Adam Searle.
On his debut for the senior team, Searle (19:59) ran a very strong third stint and climbed a further two places up to fourth.
William Gardner completed the race for R&N, scorching around the lap in a time of 19:11, overtaking third place in the process.
On the final stretch Gardner came close to snatching second from Stoke but just missed out.
All four runners put on a great performance with a combined time of 1:18:12 as R&N claimed third place.
The individual performance of the day went to Muss-Ab Hassan, competing for the B team.
He was the quickest of all the R&N athletes and finished fourth in the opening leg with a time of 19:09.
Haydn Arnall (20:11), Joe Musgrove (21:47) and Sam Blackshaw (22:13) all put in strong performances as the R&N B team came home in a very respectable tenth place.
