Bedford and County athletes strike gold at European Indoor Masters

There were also two silver medals for Tennyson in the M65 60m Hurdles and the M65 400m, and bronze medals for Bob Kingman in the M50 Pole Vault, Simon Coombes in the M50 Cross-Country, and Edith Caux – who was representing France - in the 4 x 200 X65 Mixed Relay.

The club just missed out on a medal in the Southern Twelve Stage Road Relays at a windy Milton Keynes last weekend.

Bedford’s Men's A Team started brightly, dominating the opening segments of the 12-stage race.

First off, Jack Goodwin’s 25:40 was the fastest long leg of the day and gave Bedford the lead, and on the second leg, Noah Campion maintained the club’s lead, with a 14:54 short leg that was the fourth fastest of the day.

Excellent performances from Harry Brodie and Ben Davies on legs three and four kept the club ahead of the pack.

But subsequently the greater strength-in depth of Highgate Harriers, Cambridge & Coleridge and Hercules Wimbledon began to tell.

Every Bedford runner was fully committed and each gave their all, but despite a fast 25:55 long-leg from the in-form Ed Blythman, Bedford and County finished just outside the medals.

Bedford and County member John Eves has this month set a new club M40 20 mile road best of 1:49:29 in the Essex 20.

Another Bedford athlete, Lily Farr, finished in an excellent 21st place in the Inter-Girls race at the English Schools Cross Country Championships.

Lily was boxed in the stampede of 343 runners at the start and found it difficult to negotiate the phalanx of runners spread across the course in front of her.

However, as space eventually began to open up for her, she worked her way through the field from 75th place to finish an outstanding 21st - which was only 10 seconds behind 10th place and an international vest.

Theo Beale also enjoyed a good run to finish 88th in a field of 329 runners.