St Albans Striders bagged silver and bronze medals in the first cross country fixture of 2014.

The men’s and women’s teams were out in force at the Hertfordshire County Championships over a muddy and hilly course at Cassiobury Park, Watford, on Sunday.

The women’s team finished the 8k race in second place thanks to Wendy Webster (sixth), Deborah Steer (10th), Claire Kremer (13th), Liz McKie (15th) and Zoe Lowe (19th). Meanwhile, in the men’s race over 12k, the men’s A team came third after Ironman Paul Adams was the first Strider home in 12th place, followed by Steve Buckle (16th), Graham Smith (19th), Joe Dunn (33rd), Gary Warren (36th) and Cathal Gallagher (40th).

Earlier in the week a number of Striders competed in New Years Day races with Graham Smith coming 17th out of 590 at the Serpentine 10k with a personal best time of 36mins 32secs and Deirdre Heydecker coming 196th and fourth female vet 55 in 48mins 28secs.

Rav Dighe ran the Richmond First 5k in Virginia USA, finishing in 21mins 33secs and Howard Bull came 22nd in the Winchester Parkrun. Also Doug Hobson was 25th in 39mins 17secs in the Regents Park 10k.